خُذْ مِنْ أَمْوَالِهِمْ صَدَقَةً تُطَهِّرُهُمْ وَتُزَكِّيهِم بِهَا وَصَلِّ عَلَيْهِمْ إِنَّ صَلاَتَكَ سَكَنٌ لَّهُمْ وَاللّهُ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ
Take Sadaqah (alms) from their wealth in order to purify them and sanctify them with it, and invoke Allâh for them. Verily! Your invocations are a source of security for them, and Allâh is All-Hearer, All-Knower. (Al-Qur'an 9:103)
The original meaning of Zakat is both purification and growth. Zakat purifies the donors from selfishness , miserliness and stinginess. Zakat augments the wealth and makes it abundant. Mohammed said, “ Never will charity diminish the wealth, rather it augments it”.
Zakat is a manifestation of social mutual responsibility among the Muslims. So the wealthy among them may sympathize with the poor And the poor among them may love the wealthy. Also Zakat is the major economic means for establishing social justice and leading the Muslim society to prosperity and security.
- Zakat (paying the poor due) is one of the 5 pillars of Islam.
- It indicates a person’s sincerity of faith, since it shows his commitment to sacrifice something which he covets (material wealth). Hence it is called sadaqah, because it is an indication of his sincerity (sidq) to please Allah, may He be exalted.
- It cleanses ones character of greed avarice selfishness and miserliness.
- It gladdens the heart. If a person gives something, especially wealth, he feels a sense of joy. This is something that is tried and tested, but it is subject to the condition that he gives gladly and willingly, not grudgingly.
- It is one of the means of entering Paradise, because Paradise is for the one who “speaks good words, spreads (the greeting of) salaam, feeds the hungry and prays at night when the people are asleep.” And all of us are striving to enter Paradise.
- It makes society like a single family, in which those who have the means, show compassion to those who do not and the rich show empathy to those who are in hardship. Thus a person feels that he has brothers to whom he must do good as Allah has been good to him. This is practised nowadays as “social security”, but zakat is better, because a person is paying it voluntarily as an obligatory duty and benefiting his brothers thereby.
- It prevents extreme financial disparity and associated social evils and crimes.
- It leads a man to learn about the laws of Allah, because he can never pay his zakat until he has learned the rulings on zakat, the kinds of wealth that are subject to zakat and those who are entitled to receive it, and other information that he needs.
- It purifies wealth, so that the wealth will grow literally and metaphorically. If a person gives charity from his wealth, that this will protect him from problems, and Allah may increase his provision because of his giving charity.
- It expiates for sins.
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