Zakah is a duty performed on a regular basis but it is not regarded as a charity. The rate for Zakah is 1/14 on year savings and it is done in order to ‘cleanse’ your money and possessions from excessive desire for them, or greed. This rate applies to cash, bank savings and jewellery. There is a different rate for agricultural produce and livestock as you can see from the table below. Zakah is also a test of Muslim honesty and expenditure. Money is for the service of humanity, and for promoting good and justice in the world.
Below is a simplified version of the rates of Zakah.
Muslims also have to keep in mind that they are not allowed to pick and choose to whom their wealth is distributed to. Muslims must remember that in Islam all Muslims are brothers and the all of the poor have a claim upon the rich.
When people come into this world they come naked meaning they have no possessions and when they leave this world they will leave in the same state meaning they will not be able to take anything with them so there is no point in clinging on to any possessions, or worse, letting the possessions become your masters.
All Muslims are expected to be charitable, which means ‘generous and kind’. To a Muslim, the word ‘charity’ implies any good action that is done merely for the sake of Allah. This could mean giving any form of help to the needy, not just financially.
Also remembering that Zakah can only be used for certain arranged purposes:
- To help the poor
- To release from debt
- To help needy travellers
- To free captives
- To win people over to the cause of Allah
- To pay those who collect it
Paying this Zakah should be done with such purity that it is recommended that the Muslim should pay the Zakah in secret so that the payer should receive no false admiration, since they are doing no more than their responsibility; and poor people are not made ashamed in receiving.
Taking all of this into consideration, our Prophet (s.a.w) still disapproved of begging,
“For a person who suffers calamity and loses his property, it is permissible for him to ask until he is able to stand on his own feet.”
Many Muslims send their charity to help the poor in impoverished countries as many countries are less developed than others. This causes an invisible border between the countries. If we look carefully at our world we see two extremes, the extremely rich and the extremely poor. Luxembourg is the richest country in the world according to its Gross National Product. The average person in that country earns approximately $40,000 per year while in Sudan the average person earns $63. That is a colossal difference in wealth. If we look at a map of the world we can see that most of the world's developed countries lie north of the equator while the majority of developing countries lie south. This can also be referred to at times as the 'Physical Quality of Life Index Line'. The countries which lie south are known as less developed countries – countries which are still very poor and have people starving like Sudan, Bangladesh, and Mali etc.
The reasons behind these countries being less developed are two. Many of them are in war and are less developed because of human cause and many are less developed because of natural disasters such as an earthquake. In Africa, many civil wars (wars fought between people from the same country) have been caused by European empire-building in the 19th century. Also LDCs can suffer from wars between countries. Wars can also be caused by corruption and political differences. These wars destroy crops, homes, schools, hospitals etc. this causes even more poverty.
The World Bank which provides loans to these countries expects its money returned along with interest charges and a lot of these countries can barely afford to repay just the money loaned. Therefore they borrow more money to pay off the first loan. It is a never-ending cycle which leaves these nations continuously in debt. An idea which has been suggested is to cancel all debts and begin again yet many are unwilling to do this. A lot of the money which people rightfully earn through production and exportation never reaches their pockets as retailers and transporters take the majority of the profit therefore the hard-working person in that country receives a very small amount of the profit. Secondly we have hunger and there are two forms of this. They include starvation and malnutrition. Starvation is where the people don't have enough to eat. This is a problem which many organisations have tried to solve by actually giving food to the people and also by giving them the means to produce their own by providing seeds, tools etc. Malnutrition is where there is enough food but it doesn't provide a balanced diet. There is very little that can be done about this as helping organisations do not have the means in which to meet every nutritional need. This can also be due to a shortage of water, but the people's own lack of knowledge and natural disasters would also be responsible.
Also many LDCs are located in areas of the world where natural disasters are more common and more relentless than anywhere else. An earthquake which lasts a mere 4-6 seconds could destroy the crops etc for many generations to come.
There are many different groups which help and support these less developed and poor countries such as Muslim Aid or Red Cross etc. Out of these many groups there is a group called Islamic Relief. Islamic Relief is one of many groups which want to change less developed countries.
Islamic Relief is an international aid and progress charity, which aims to lessen the suffering of the world’s poorest people. It is an independent Non-Governmental Organisation founded in the UK in 1984 by Dr Hany El Banna. Islamic Relief responds to disasters and emergencies as well as promoting sustainable economic and social development by working with local communities- regardless of their religion, race or gender. It is a registered charity.
Islamic Relief has set up a program in which a person can sponsor an orphan. They intend to help needy orphans worldwide by supplying them with assistance in the form of healthcare, education, nutrition and income. Islamic Relief also build new water supply systems in rundown areas. They dig wells for people who need them or deepen old wells. They also provide individuals with access to some form of education allowing them to maybe escape from the poverty trap. They have initiated a number of community based education programmes to achieve this. Islamic Relief has also been involved in programmes which provide speedy assistance to help victims of various types of disasters. Islamic Relief has field offices all around the world. This charity is a very hard working charity like all others, they run on the money which people donate as they do not gain any sort of financial profit which shows their sincerity.
The Statement
“There should be no rich people as long as there is poverty in the world”
Many people believe that as long as there are poor people around the world there should be no rich people. I do not agree with this view as I believe that had there not been any rich people in this world then how would the poor people be helped. I think Allah has made some people poor and some people rich so that they can help each other.
“Be steadfast in prayer, regular in giving. Whatever good you send forth from your souls before you, you will find it (again) with God; for God sees well all that you do.” (surah 2:110 and other passages)
We can understand from the above mentioned Quranic verse that Allah had wanted it to be that there would be rich and poor people so that He could test the miser ness and the sincerity of the rich people.
“Fast in the month of Ramadan, pray your five times daily Salah, give Zakah from your wealth and fear your Lord and you will enter into your Lords Paradise” (The Final Sermon given by Prophet [s.a.w])
Also, our prophet (s.a.w) told us to give our wealth in the path of Allah. Although he might have even meant poor people giving their wealth but I think this saying was aimed at the rich people. It is not permissible for poor people to not give the wealth they have because if they do then they will get more reward than a wealthy person giving in the path of Allah as the poor person gave what he needed for himself.
In conclusion, I think that rich people are there to help the poor people and that to believe in that there should be no wealth as long as there is poverty is wrong. In Islam it is a big reward for people to give charity to the poor, this would not have been the case, had there not been any poverty.
