Ramadan al-Mubarak has ended after it came to us with the message of mercy and blessings. May Allah continue to bless our lives with the baraka of Ramadan for the whole year.

In Ramadan, Muslims try to change their lives. They pay more attention in Salah, siyam, tahajjud, tilawat, tarawih, munajat, tawbah, sadaqah, etc. and try to keep the month alive; these deeds should be maintained even after Ramadan. May Allah grant us tawfiq to continue performing these acts of worship.

Today our main topic is the responsibility in giving 'Zakat'. Zakat is one of the five pillars of Islam. Zakat is mentioned along with Salah in many places in the Quran. Hadhrat Abu Bakr Siddiqr.a., the first Caliph of Islam even fought against those who refused to pay zakat. He said-

وَاللهِ لَأُقَاتِلَنَّ مَنْ فَرَّقَ بَيْنَ الصَّلَاةِ وَالزَّكَاة.

By Allah, I will fight against those people who want to differentiate between salatand zakat. - Sahih Bukhari, Hadith 7284

In other words, just as salat is an obligatory and important act of worship in Islam, zakat is also an obligatory and important act of worship. Salat is a person's physical worship and Zakat is a financial worship.

The rules of zakat are very comprehensive and complicated. But today it has become a fashion that several financial institutions, Islamic organizations started providing zakat calculators. It seems as if it is a calculator based system like the EMI of a bank. When you input the amount of your debt, monthly installment and percentage of interest, you will get the result instantly.

It is important to know that the masa'il of zakat are not so simple, especially in this age when people's lifestyles and business systems have changed. For example, generally it is written in the books of fatwas that if you have a debt, your debt will be deducted from your zakatable assets. If someone does not understand the books well, they may issue a fatwa that the owners of big companies and corporate institutions do not have to give zakat, because many of them have a large bank loan. For example, imagine someone invested 1000 crore rupees in their business, but also took out a loan of 1000 crore rupees or more, which left them with a significant amount of debt.Would they be exempt from zakat due to their debt?

Recently, a doctor asked about a mas’ala. He has a house in Dhaka city, and it is not difficult to understand that he lives a prosperous life. He has been giving Zakat for a long time and gave Zakat in advance this year as well. However, during the year, he bought a shop and borrowed a big loan. Someone told him that he is exempt from Zakat due to his loan.

There are many people who will say this type of wrong mas’alas. The organizations that want to collect zakat money look for this type of people, who  will issue Fatwa in their favor.

As mentioned earlier, the issue of Zakat is not so simple. Nowadays, loans are of many types. There are certain debts that will be deducted in the calculation of Zakat, and there are some debts that will not be deducted. You should know them well. A calculator cannot calculate these things thoroughly and accurately in many cases. Therefore, it is not safe for many people, especially in the business community, to calculate Zakat by just using a calculator.

Yes, those who have a very simple income, who do not have different types of debts or development loans, can calculate their wealth and give two and a half percent as Zakat.

To calculate Zakat, ordinary people, especially the business community, should seek the help of knowledgeable, skilled, and reliable scholars. It must be remembered that Zakat is not something that can be given based on assumption; instead, two and a half percent must be given after careful calculation.

Unfortunately, Islamic laws and the Islamic economy are not effective in many Muslim states. As a result, we are constantly facing many worldly problems, and our state is getting more and more dependent on debt. In the end, we are suffering from many problems from religious point of view as well.

Zakat is one of the safeguards of Islamic state, Islamic economy and financial security of Muslims. Due to the absence of Islamic rules in the state, the full responsibility of paying Zakat falls on the Muslim citizens themselves. In some muslim countries, including our own, the state also establishes zakat boards and collects zakat. However, it is clear that the intention of government is not to enforce religious rules. Rather, the state collects zakat as an income  just like it collects taxes and donetions from its citizens.

This has been the condition of government led management in different countries. However, nowadays, another issue has emerged in addition to this. Many organizations and institutions at home and abroad started collecting Zakat, whose activities are generally not deemed in favor of Islam. Even the leaders of such institutions are Non muslims. Many institutions also operate within non-muslim communities (perhaps sometimes within Muslim commutity). They are asking for zakat. This issue has become more relevant in our country this year. We are repeatedly inquired by conscious muslims, ordinary people, and readers of alkawsar - such and such organization is asking for Zakat. So and so organization is calling people for Zakat. Many people are giving Zakat to them. What should we do?

We investigated and found the situation to be very alarming. Many organizations are taking Zakat money from people through their accounts. They are asking for money through online advertisement in different newspappers and apps owned by several banks and financial institutions. Thus, it has become a matter of great concern for Muslims to fulfill the obligation of zakat.

The matter is more relevant because Islam not only made Zakat obligatory but also imposed some responsibilities on the zakat giver. In the same way, some responsibilities have been assigned to the zakat receiver.

The responsibility of zakat receiver is that he will check himself first whether he eligible for zakat or not. If someone has a decent living arrangement at home and perhaps has one or two lakh Tk in his bank account, but faces challanges for meeting family expenses, he should be eligible for taking Zakat. So the zakat receiver should be aware of this.

The zakat giver should not avoid his responsibility by saying that he has given it to an organization. His first responsibility is to deliver Zakat to the right person.

People who are eligible to take Zakat are mentioned in the Holy Quran in verse 60 of Surah al-Bara’ah. Its details and provisions are described in various hadiths and Islamic jurisprudence. The first step is to choose. Generally, among the categories described in the Qur'an, the poor are the most selected and the most relevant. So it is the responsibility of the zakat giver to choose the poor class to give zakat money first.

In the case of Zakat, the poor must be made the owner of the zakat money. If you rent a hotel or a house with Zakat money for accommodation of the poor, your obligation of Zakat will not be fulfilled, because, you did not make anyone the owner of zakat money. There are many other rules related to Zakat. Unfortunately, people who are not fully aware of masa’il of zakat took the responsibility of distributing zakat. Some uses titles, some uses  appearance to misguide people. We do not want to degrade anyone by mentioning anything specific.

A few years ago, the issue of zakat of a large business group was submitted in Darul Ifta of Markazud Dawah Al-Islamia Dhaka. The question was that the industrial group gave billions of zakat money through a committee for many years. Surprisingly, the committee that was in charge of distribution of zakat first took one eighth of that money  announcing them as 'Amel' described in the Quran. That is, they are the people who work with zakat. They are zakat collectors. In fact they are not ‘Amel or zakat collectors. Amel are those who are appointed by the Islamic State to collect Zakat. This is clearly mentioned in the Book of Fiqh and Hadith. Apart from this, they were only a committee. They were not collectors. They are given zakat money in their own office. How would they announce them as collectors?

That group was told that their obligation of zakat was not fulfilled properly. They should pay zakat again. That is why we have repeatedly said that the issue of zakat is very delicate, very subtle which requires a good understanding.

Because of these issues, Ulama and Muslims are always reluctant in giving zakat through the government Zakat Board in this country. The same situation is prevailing in all those countries that are not committed to Islamic rules. People are not sure whether government zakat board will distribute their Zakat properly or not.

However, it is a matter of great regret that, these days, people of this generation are about to forget these principles. The issue of Zakat is not like other donations. If any disaster happens, we can provide charity for the affected people. However, we cannot spend zakat money for them. Recently, a very sad and regrettable incident has occurred. A market caught fire. It was heard that some individuals collected zakat for the affected individuals.

Did they asked for zakat? Did they say, we are eligible for zakat? Is it not necessary to scrutinize for giving zakat? Those who collected zakat should have considered these things.

Moreover, when we hand over our zakat money to an organization, we should observe the life style of the people involved in the management of the organization. Do they have any relationship with Islam? Do they have knowledge about the rules of Islam? Outwardly, we may see, they are feeding someone for one Taka or for nothing, or they are helping a particular group of people. We appreciate everyone’s good deeds, charity activities, if there is no ill intention. Islam also teaches us to get involved in charity activities. However, it should be remembered that Zakat is not meant to be given to all classes of people. We have previously heard that many foundations collect Qurbani money. Now the same thing happened with Zakat money. Different groups or different organizations are asking for Zakat. Our point is not that an organization cannot collect zakat money; rather, our point is that in order to collect Zakat, they must be trustworthy. How well their religious understanding is? How much do they know about Zakat? Do they have ability to apply rules of Zakat properly? Could they pay it in the right place?  Do they know all the rules of zakat - how to collect and how to spend it? It is very essential to see their belief, trust, their practice of Islam in real life. Because if a large amount of zakat is deposited with an organization, it has to make much effort to spend them properly at the right place. Only God-fearing people help others to perform their great worship properly.

The purpose of these words is to emphasize that Zakat is one of the pillars of Islam. It must be paid properly. If we pay Zakat and spend money but still the obligation of zakat remains unfulfilled, this is similar to performing Salah and then realizing that it was not performed properly! It is more saddening that I prayed, spent time, went to the mosque; but it turned out – I could not perform it properly! This should not happen with Zakat.

May Allah grant us tawfiq to perform our religious duties properly and grant us the correct understanding of religion. We should not be deceived in performing our worship.

Translation: Enam Hasan Junaid