It is an obligatory financial
payment to be paid by every Moslem according to certain terms and
conditions and this money is extracted in the night of the
so-called Eid-Al-fitr on behalf of himself and of the people of
whom he in charge and it is called: Al-Fitrah for the necessity
of being given on the day of Al-Fitr-that is after the whole
month of Ramadhan is over.
This imposition aims at
strengthening the social ties among the Moslems by way of
emitting sensations of joy into the hearts of the poor and the
needy on the first day of the blessed Al-Ftr Eid on which the
following conditions are to be taken into
consideration:
1. The
age of maturity: The small boy who is below maturity is not to
give Zakat of Al-Fitrah.
2. The
mind: for it is not binding on the one whose mind is
defective.
3. Not
going into a trance or fainting away: If he gets into a fit, he
is not bound to pay that Zakat.
4. The
wealthy: The poor one who can't make both ends meet is not bound
to give Zakat Al-Fitrah.
5. Freedom:
The slave is released from the
obligation of giving this kind of Zakat… So, Zakat is to be paid
after having put all these conditions into consideration at one
time and a moment before sunset. This, indeed is necessarily
binding according to the opinion of the Shia's Higher Religious
Authority: His Eminence As-Sayyid Ali Al-Hussaini
As-Sistani.
Is paying Zakat Al-Fitr
obligatory on the poor one?
We have already mentioned that
among the conditions of paying Zakat is "wealth" and that the
poor one is not necessarily bound to pay Zakat for his
being
unable to earn his daily living
affairs and hardly could make both ends meet for one whole year
on the ground of reality or by what he owns of power.
But as jurisprudents say in their
books with regard to judgments; the poor one can also approvingly
extract Zakat from his own annual budget but it is not
necessarily binding. So, if he owned a certain amount of food and
paid it, for example, as Zakat to a number of his household, then
they exchange it among themselves.
Jurisprudents also remark that
when the role of Zakat is over, It will then be paid to the poor
foreigners i.e. outside the domestic coverage.
How to Extract Zakat of
Al-Fitrah?
In Zakat Al-Fitrah there must be
that good faith which is to be well-enacted with one's self.
Intention is to be said to one's self that you intend to extract
it and give it as a gift in the way of Allah, the Almighty, like
any other worshipping act.
This Zakat must also be paid by
the one on whom all the above- mentioned conditions of Zakat are
available and so on…that which concerns him first and all the
other family members of whom he is in charge, next…whether he
financially be fully responsible for them like the parents, the
wife, the children and the like, or some other one whether he be
a close relative or a distant one, whether he be a Moslem or a
disbeliever, youngster or elderly.
This subject matter concentrates
on one point only i.e. the amount that concerns Zakat Al-Fitrah
is to be extracted as it is expressed in jurisprudential books
"Financial guardianship" that is the person who is legally
responsible for paying Zakat on their behalf even for a temporary
period….like the sudden presence of a guest before the appearance
of the crescent in the sky where he stayed up the night before
the festival started the next day in the house of the host even
though he didn't eat anything.
But this doesn't involve a person
who was invited to a banquet to break his fast on the night of
the Festival, for the host is not responsible for paying the
guest's Zakat.
Sun -
22 Jamadilawal 1446H -
