Az-Zakat…is to be paid to those
who are legally worthy of taking it and they are eight in number
as in the following:
1. The
poor one: He is the person who can't provide his annual provision
according to his social position, his urgent needs and the needs
of his family.
2. The
needy one: He is the one whose standard of living is worse than
the poor one like that who can't make both ends meet i.e. who is
unable to cover his daily wants.
3. Those
employed to collect the funds… that is: those who are legally
appointed to collect money, check it up and count the amounts
received, and be in charge of anything that relates to it……and to
finally be delivered to those who deserve it and then deliver it
to the Imam or his deputy-the jurisprudent who covers the whole
body of terms and conditions that bind the Islamic
jurisprudence
4. Those
whose hearts are inclined towards Islam but they in origin were
weak in their religious faith and belief; therefore, paying Zakat
to them is a means of attracting the hearts of the disbelievers
towards Islam and to free the captives and those in debt and for
Allah's Cause that is: for (Mujahidin) those fighting in a holy
war in addition to pushing away the evil and the sedition of the
polytheists and the disbelievers.
5. For
releasing the captives out of the money collected under the title
of Al-Zakat.
6. Those
indebted that is: those who were impotent to pay back their debt
though they have got the provision of one whole year but on
condition that the money given to them is not being spent counter
to Islamic beliefs.
7. Paying Zakat for Allah's
Cause
It is that kind of Zakat which is
given to be spent on public interests like: building roads,
bridge or constructing a hospital or religious schools, mosques,
shelters for the poor or the orphans and some amounts are located
to be spent on cultural consciousness such as: printing useful
Islamic books and the like.
8. Paying Zakat for the wayfarer (the traveller
who is cut off from everything) and who can't afford to pay the
cost of returning to his country; so, for this reason sufficient
amounts of money will be given to him out of the funds of Zakat
on condition that it shouldn't be spent on acts of disobedience
to the Almighty Allah.
There are a number of criteria which Islam has
applied to restrict the real numbers of those who deserve Zakat
to be paid to them for it is not permissible to pay Zakat to
anyone who claims to be worthy of it; therefore, building on the
foregoing, it is illegal to pay Zakat to those who have not
enough proofs or conditions which confirm their claims that they
are worthy of given Zakat.
The conditions which confirm one
to be worthy of zakat are the following:
1. Faith: it incurs that the disbeliever does not
have the right to receive Zakat and is disallowed to claim
deserving it.
2. It is
not to be spent on misdeeds and vicious
acts.
; therefore, Zakat is not to be
given to one who is believed to have been spending it on totally
forbidden items ….and also not to be given to anyone who used to
help others do misdeeds even though he himself didn't intend to
spend it on forbidden items.
Islamic jurisprudents are mostly
precautious not to give Zakat to one who is thought to have been
not performing the obligatory daily prayers…nor to a drunkard nor
to one who is publicly notorious for dealing with
debauchery.
3. And
that the Zakat giver who is found to be in charge of
expenditure-not to give Zakat to his parents or to the children
whether be males or females and this will also involve the
grandfathers and the grandmothers even though their esteem has
got higher than before and sons of the sons even though they got
to be lower in esteem…as well as the permanent wife except in
certain exceptional cases as in the case that someone of them is
being indebted and that he couldn't afford to pay back his
debt.
4. If
the Zakat giver has not been a relative of the Hashimite family,
Zakat shall not legally be given to the Hashimite one. The
Hashimite one is he who is affiliated to Hashim- the Prophet's
grandfather (P.B.U.H.) from the paternal side.
Sun -
22 Jamadilawal 1446H -
