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A religious obligation, zakat is mandatory for every Muslim who must donate 2.5% of his/her annual savings to charity.
Zakat, or charity, is one of the five pillars of Islam. The amount is calculated as 2.5% of a family’s annual savings and the donation can be made in cash or kind any time of the year, but most contributions are made during the Ramzan— a period of fasting and prayers — because it is believed that the rewards of good deeds in this month are greater.
A religious obligation, zakat is mandatory for every Muslim who must donate 2.5% of his/her annual savings to charity. However, unorganised zakat collection, a lack of transparency among the individuals and institutions which receive it and unprofessionalism in its distribution are collectively causing a colossal economic loss. Those who have studied the system of zakat collection and its distribution are aghast at the way the money, which could fund thousands of welfare schemes for the Muslim community, is being frittered away.
The major chunk of zakat money goes to the thousands of madrassas that have mushroomed across the country. Though zakat can be given throughout the year, most Muslims give it during Ramzan since every good deed done in this month is supposed to bring boundless blessings. And so every Ramzan the madrassas send out their representatives to big cities like Mumbai to collect zakat.
Often, it is the same set of individuals and madrassas which approach the affluent to receive zakat. This deprives the truly deserving of zakat money. “Ideally, one who takes zakat once should be able to give zakat next year. Unfortunately, that is not happening,” says Maulana Burhanuddin Qasmi, director of the socio-cultural organisation Markazul Maarif.
Who deserves zakat? The Quran mentions eight categories of people who can take zakat: the poor, destitute, the indebted, pilgrims, missionaries, poor non-Muslims who evoke sympathy among the zakat giver and the collectors of zakat who are poor. Who cannot get zakat? Those who are sahi-be-nisaab. A sahi-be-nisaab is defined as one who owns at least 75 grams of gold or 520 grams of silver or an equivalent amount of money which they have saved in a year.
There has been no recent study to calculate the money that is collected as Zakat across the country. Dr Rahmatullah of All-India Council of Muslim Economic Upliftment, tried to find an estimate eight years ago using government and independent statistics on per capita income and charity. He arrived at the figure of Rs10,000 crores. “But keeping in view the increase in per capita income since then the contributions must have tripled. It is an estimate, but the amount could be Rs30,000-Rs 40,000 crores,” said Rahmatullah. For a comparison, the annual budget of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, the country’s richest, is about Rs 37,000 crores.
Siraj Hussain, former Indian Administrative Service officer, said that the figures are inflated. “If you see the per capita income of Muslim families in the NSSO (National Sample Survey Office) data and do a calculation, the estimate of charity is too high. There is no transparency because most transactions are in cash,” said Hussain. “The collection is poorly organised. The community is so poor that even if the donations are made by cheque the amount will be below the estimates.”
Rahmatullah said that the problem was not about transparency, but the way the charity is collected and distributed. “The system is such that there is no organised way to calculate how much money is collected. In fact there is a need for such a study; it is in the interest of Muslims,” said Rahmatullah.
There is also no agreement on how the donations are being spent. Hussain said that a large part of the charity goes to religious institutions. “According to tradition, the first priority is the family; then the relatives. After these two categories, the donations go mostly to madrassas and mosques.”
Rahmatullah said this is changing. “Earlier people gave Zakat unmindful of what it is used for. There is a change in mindset now and people want to donate for education and healthcare. They think this will bring change in the Muslim community.”Maulana Syed Moinuddin Ashraf, a spiritual leader from the city who is known as Moin Miya, said that the trend is to donate more for causes like education.
“I feel that medical help and education should get more importance. People know that if one person gets educated it helps the family. It is teaching people to fish, rather than distributing free fish.”
The article says zakat is first given to near relatives and then to madrasaz. So admittedly all are covered unless one wants to say that non muslims be included. Giving to near ones and madrasaz is the best way as it protects muslims and their religion. Some anti Islam lobbies are aiming at dismantling Islamic education and they are trying to brainwash muslims. Such ones are destined for hell.
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