Islam is Allah’s religion that He All Mighty revealed to His Messenger Muhammad (PBUH). It contains faith, ideology and Sharia (the revealed or canonical law of Islam). Ideology, together with all its conceptions, it a fundamental part of the Holy Koran;  while the Sharia, together with all its elaborate rules is a branch thereof. If man’s ideology is proper  and sound, his work becomes proper, too. The principles of ideology are those of Faith; while principles of Sharia are those of Islam, devotional services, transactions and ethics. The Koran speaks of ideology as Faith and of the Sharia as righteous work. Belief and righteous work are associated together in most of the verses of the Holy Koran, for the relationship between them is that of cause and effect, just like the relationship between trees and fruits. Some Devotional services, such as prayer, are corporal; some, such as Zakat (Alms giving), are financial; and others are both corporal and financial respectively such as the Hajj (pilgrimage to Makkah). Zakat is, in fact, a kind of protection to properties and their owners. This is because when a hungry man’s appetite is satisfied and a needy man is provided with clothes, security and peace prevail. It causes the individual to love expenditure and generosity, and implants in society the seeds of cooperation and fraternity. It does not solve financial problems by using force but rather by awaking people’s conscience and enlightening their minds.

In he sight of Islam, wealth belongs all to Allah All Mighty; and a wealthy man is but Allah’s viceroy on His wealth. The poor are dependents of Allah All High; the dearest of Allah’s viceroys to Allah are the most devoted to His dependents. Piety is responsibility and duty rather than grace or gift. To this effect, Allah, Glory be to Him, says, “…and expend of that unto which He has made you successors.” [LVII; 7]

Zakat is one of the pillars of Islam and one of the basic aspects of true Faith. It goes side by side with Salat (prayer) and the Testimony of Islam (i.e. bearing witness that there is not god but Allah and that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger, as a sign of embracing the religion of Islam and deserving brotherhood with all Muslims). Allah All Mighty, says, “Yet if they repent, and perform the prayer, and pay the alms, then they are your brothers in religion.” [IX; 11].  

It is an indispensable obligatory religious duty. Those who deny it are considered as unbelievers; those who prevent it are deemed as profligate and iniquitous. It is by no means a mere donation that a rich man bestows upon a poor one or through which he does him a favor. It is in fact far deeper and far more reaching. It is an important part of the whole Islamic economic system. It essentially means that part of the wealth of the Islamic nation is being transferred from some place to another - from the hands of those who are made Allah’s viceroys on guarding and growing His Wealth, namely the  rich, to the laboring toiling hands whose income is not sufficient for their needs, or those who are unable to work, namely the poor and needy.

Ali bin Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him,  quoted the Messenger of Allah, (PBUH) as saying, “Allah enjoined upon the rich Muslims as much  from their wealth as will cover the needs of the poor ones; and the poor suffer strains of need and hunger only by that (wealth) which the rich waste. Verily, Allah will make with them a terrible reckoning and chastise them with a horrible chastisement.” Imam Ali, may Allah honor him, says, “If the rich be stingy with their wealth, the poor purchase their Hereafter for the present world of the others.”

Allah, Praise be to Him, says, “Take of their wealth a free will offering to purify them and to cleanse them thereby, and pray for them; your prayers are a comfort for them; Allah is All-hearing, All-Knowing” [IX; 103]. This verse is the origin of the Zakat duty in Islam. Therefore, it needs deliberate contemplation.

*From the term “Take” it can be inferred that Zakat is not merely a good work of charity; neither is it a noble quality; nay, rather it is a basic pillar of the religion of Islam, and one of its great religious rules and principles. It is the corner stone of the whole economic system of Islam, and one of the foundations of its social solidarity and integration. It is neither a free-will charity nor voluntary charity; nay rather it is a religions duty of the highest legal and moral obligation. That is why Allah, Glorified and Exalted did not bid Muslims to pay it but He commanded His Messenger, and men of power after him, to collect itfrom the rich. In other words, Zakat is something taken and not given, imposed and not begged or pleaded for.

*From the term “from”, which denotes portioning, it can be inferred that Zakat does not touch the whole wealth but part of it. The Prophetic Sunna showed precisely the portions and amounts of this “some”, in proportion to the kind of such wealth, the way it is earned and the efforts exerted in earning it.

*From the term “their wealth”, which is in the plural, it can be understood that Zakat embraces  all kinds of wealth, including land production, animals and livestock, gold and silver, all types of currencies, bills, debts, loans, credits, all kinds of commercial goods and transactions, jewelry that is not for personal use, and even mineral and oil resources.

*From the term “their” it can be inferred that Zakat is imposed on every Muslim possessing the Nissab (i.e. minimum amount of property or wealth liable to payment of the Zakat tax) as illustrated by the Sunna with no exceptions, exemptions, reductions, or concealments.

From the term “freewill offering” it can be inferred that when a Muslim gives his offering by his own free will, he confirms his truthfulness, i.e., conformity of his work with his belief. It also confirms his belief in Allah’s commandment as well as the Day of Doom. The Messenger of Allah,(PBUH), as narrated by Imam Muslim in his Sahih Book of Hadith, says, “Freewill offering is an Evidence (of the donor’s true faith).” In this sense, the free will offering is a financial type of  devotional service whereby a Muslim fonfirms his true Faith and sincerity to the Lord All Mighty and His religion. If men of authority do not command him to pay it, the Holy Koran does.

*From the phrase “to purify them” it is understood that Zakat purifies the soul of the rich from avarice which is a very dangerous evil quality that is conducive to loss of dignity, disloyalty, murder, crime, grudge and feud among the poor. No individual, or society, will ever be prosperous where  avarice and niggardliness dominate. To this effect, Allah All Mighty says, “And whosoever is guarded against the avarice of his own soul, those are the prosperous.” [LIX; 9].

Zakat also purifies the soul of the poor from envy and malice towards the rich who hoard up Allah’s wealth and deprive His servants from it. Good work is apt to win people’s hearts and favor, deprivation their malice and hatred. It also purifies the whole society from the seeds of destruction, dissension, disputation and discord. It also purifies wealth from the rights of others. This is because an extorted rock used to build a house causes its destruction; similarly a dirhem deserved by a poor man in the wealth of a rich one is apt to blemish it all. The Messenger of Allah, (PBUH), says, “If you pay the Zakat of your wealth you safeguard yourself from its evil.” He also says, “Protect your wealth by Zakat.”

*From “and to cleanse them thereby” growth and augmentation can be inferred. This is because Zakat is growth and augmentation to the poor, the rich and  wealth. It also enhances and develops social relations and human principles and values. It is growth of the personality of the rich and their spiritual entity. A rich man who does favor to others, does deeds of righteousness, gives off, out of his own free will, in order to help his fellow humans, and do what Allah All Mighty has commanded him to do, such a man is sure to feel happy and contented, like someone who has won a battle. In fact he has won the battle against his avarice, weakness, egoism, and caprice, which is  a great spiritual enhancement. Perhaps this is a part of the meaning of “and cleanse them thereby” which follows  “to purify them” in the above Koranic verses.

*Zakat is also growth of the personality of the poor. It makes them feel that they are neither lost nor unheeded in their society. They feel that they are not discarded or forgotten in weakness and poverty. They feel that their society helps them get rid of their hardship and shoulder their responsibilities, and provides them with every help to overcome their difficulties. Even more, they do not get financial aids from a certain person or individual to whom they feel inferior; nay, rather they receive help from the whole society. This way their dignity and self-respect are by no means injured or humiliated. If, however, individuals wish to offer help to other fellow humans, they are strongly warned by the Holy Koran of displaying any kind of reproach or injury to the poor or needy. To this effect, the Koranic verses go, “Honorable words, and forgiveness, are better than a free will offering followed by injury; and Allah is All-Sufficient, All-Clement. O believers, void not your free will offerings with reproach and injury, as one who expends of his substance to show off to men and believes not in Allah and the Last Day.” [II; 263].

*The Zakat is also growth and increase of wealth. How is it so while yet it seems to be decrease of wealth when part of it is paid to the poor. It is well-known to specialized people that behind this seeming  decrease there stands a real increase; an increase of the general wealth of society, an increase of the wealth of the rich themselves. This is because paying Zakat  augments purchasing power of the poor which in turn yields profits to those who pay Zakat themselves. This is exactly what the Koranic verse denotes, “And whatever thing you expend, He will replace it. He is the best of providers”. [II; 276].

Wealth and substance of the Zakat-giver will be increased through Divine Providence, not through any other materialistic ways.

*The Zakat is also a kind of social security introduced by the religion of Islam, which abhors to have in human society anyone deprived of food that suffices them, garment that protects them, a house that shelters them. Therefore, Muslims are strongly demanded to strive to attain such human requirements and rights by lawful means. If someone fails to do so, the whole Muslim society is there to sponsor and support him, and not to leave him easy prey to poverty and need.

Under the umbrella of Islam, Muslims are all like one body; if one of its organs complains, all other parts are summoned to help and care.

*The Zakat is also an Islamic strategy whereby  the gap between the rich and the poor is bridged. Being the religion of pure human Nature, Islam acknowledges man’s natural inclination to earning and possessing money; yet it ordains certain rules and principles that guarantee welfare and prosperity to all mankind. Such rules and principles prevent the rich from increasing in richness at the expense of the poor and protect the poor and safeguard their rights for a happy decent life. Islam, for example, forbids usury, monopoly, extravagance, luxury, and bids to cooperation, expenditure, charity. It forbids hoarding up of wealth or preventing it from playing its vital role in the field of work and development for the sake of prosperity and welfare of the whole nation. It strives to make the most of wealth and not to leave it where it would be an inactive paralyzed source of power whose owner wastes extravagantly here and there so as to increase the gap existing between the rich and the poor in depth and width. That is why Islam strongly forbids treasuring up of wealth and threatens those who do so, “Those who treasure up gold and silver, and do not expend them in the way of Allah, announce unto them a painful torment, on the Day when they (gold and silver) shall be heated in the Fire of Hell, and with them shall be branded their foreheads and their sides and their backs : ‘This is the thing you have treasured up for your selves; therefore taste you now what you were treasuring!’” [IX; 34, 35].

The Messenger of Allah, (PBUH), showed out that any kind of wealth, no matter how great, whose Zakat  has been paid is not a treasure. Even more, imposing  Zakat on wealth conduces to its exploitation in production and development projects least it should be consumed by Zakat. That’s why the Messenger of Allah, (PBUH), bade legal guardians of orphans’ wealth to invest it and use it in trade lest it should be consumed by Zakat.

Above all, Islam strongly forbids prodigality, squander and unwise expenditure of wealth. This is because other fellow humans have rights in this wealth. In the Divine Hadith, Allah All Mighty says, “The rich are My custodians (of My Wealth); and the poor are My dependents; and whosoever forbids My dependents My wealth, I shall make him taste of My chastisement, and I care not.”

These are some of the ripe fruits of  Zakat. Why should not they be ripe since the Gracious Koran guides to the way that it straightest?! It was narrated that Omar bin Al-Khattab, one day sent Mo’ath bin Jabbal to Yemen as a commander there. After sometime, Mu’ath sent one third of the Zakat to Omar. Omar rejected that and said to Mu’ath: ‘You have not been dispatched there as a tax collector or Jizya-taker [i.e. one who collects the head tax on free non Muslims under Muslim rule]!! You have been sent there to take from the wealth of their rich men what helps the poor of them. Mu’ath replied: ‘I have not sent you anything I could find anyone poor or needy to accept it from me.” The next year, Mu’ath sent half of the Zakat, and they both discussed the matter again. The third year, he sent him all the Zakat. Again, they discussed the matter. Mu’ath said, ‘I have not found anyone who accepts any thing from me!”

It was also said that when Omar bin Abdul Aziz (1), after having been a Caliph for thirty months, rich men used to bring great amounts of wealth for the Zakat, but they could find no one poor or needy to accept it!! Therefore, it was said that Omar bin Abdul Aziz made everyone of his people rich. It is more proper to say that it was Islam that made everyone rich. The Messenger of Allah, (PBUH), brought good tidings of this common welfare saying, “Do give free will offering before the day comes when a man goes out with his offering but finds none to accept it. The poor man will say, ‘Had you brought me your offering yesterday, I would have accepted it. Today, I do not need it’.”

Rain might be scarce, rivers might go dry, springs might seep away; frost might destroy plants and pastures, trees might become fruitless, insects and epidemics might destroy harvests and crops, strong winds might blow off trees and destroy houses, a certain kind of fly might overwhelm a harvest, a worm another, locusts might come to destroy everything, and man stands amazed before such phenomena trying to find out the causes behind such disasters!

Science tells him: the increase of CO2 in the air caused gaps in the Ozone layer which led to changes of temperature, speed of wind, lines of rains. Such scientific explanation is not convincing enough for Muslims! It does not prevent them from asking the One and Only, the Originator of all causes, Creator of all worlds and Revealer of the Holy Koran, about the real cause of all this. He Most Merciful, in reply, says, “Yet, had the peoples of the cities believed and been god fearing, we would have opened upon them blessings from heaven and earth.” [III; 96], and “Would they but go straight on the way, We would give them to drink of water copious, that We might try them therein.” [LXXII; 16-17]. If we also ask the Messenger of Allah, (PBUH), who was sent by Divine Providence, he replies, “Any people who refuse to pay Zakat, Allah is sure to try (afflict) them with years of dearth (i.e., poverty and Famine)”, “Should they refuse to pay the Zakat enjoined on their wealth, they will be deprived of rain of the sky; would it not be for the animals, they would never have rain.”,  and “No wealth, whether on land or sea, shall ever be destroyed save by holding back Zakat.”

Allah, also says, “And expend in the Way of Allah; and cast not yourselves by your own hands into destruction.” [II; 195]

This verse denotes that a Muslim who does not expend in the Way of Allah - and paying out Zakat is a part of this expenditure - he is sure to cast himself, by his own hands, into destruction! In application and confirmation of this purport, we bring forth the following story: In the Prophetic biography of the Messenger of Allah, (PBUH), it was mentioned that a hypocrite called Tha’labah(2) was noticed by the Messenger of Allah as wearing shabby garments. The Messenger of Allah asked him, “How are you, Tha’labah?” Tha’labah replied “I am as you see me.” And he didn’t praise Allah because his heart was heedless and because he was involved  in the trivial and perishable pleasures of the present world. One day, Tha’labah came to the Messenger of Allah, (PBUH), and said, “O Messenger of Allah! Ask Allah to make me rich!” The Messenger of Allah, (PBUH), gave him a deliberate look and said, “O Tha’labah! A little that suffices you is better than a lot that drives you to insolent disobedience; a little for which you be thankful is better than a lot whose rights you fail to fulfill. Be contented with what Allah has allotted for you, and then you will be (as it were) the richest of all people. Riches is not that of multitude of wealth; riches is that of man’s noble soul. And whosoever becomes  depressed for the present world becomes discontented with his Lord; Whosoever complains of a distress visiting him is discontented with Allah; Whosoever goes to a wealthy man seeking his money loses two thirds of his religion.” However, Tha’labah insisted on his request and even confirmed, “If Allah enriches me, surely I will make freewill offerings and become one of the righteous. Only then the Messenger of Allah, (PBUH), invoked, “O Allah! Enrich Tha’labah with whatever You will and the way You will!” The Messenger’s supplication was answered and Tha’labah was given lots and lots of sheep that the paths of Madinah became too crowded with them. But what happened after that? Tha’laba stopped going to the mosque for prayer. The Messenger of Allah asked about him (Pigeon of the Mosque as he was called) and knew that the man stopped all his relationship with the mosque, as he became too proud and arrogant to sit down on the ground and prostrate to Allah! A whole year passed, and the Messenger of Allah sent one of his men to collect Zakat from Tha’laba, who reconsidered the matter and then uttered the word of evil, as he addressed the Zakat collector disparagingly, “Tell your fellow (he meant the Messenger of Allah) that there is no Zakat in Islam.” The Zakat-collector said, “Don’t you think that he is your fellow, as well?! You have added to your evil act of not paying Zakat another evil one, namely renouncing allegiance and breaking your covenant. The Messenger of Allah was informed of Tha’labah’s deed, and said “Woe unto The’lalab!” Soon, Allah revealed verses to be read till the Day of Judgment about Tha’labah and the like of him, “And some of them have made covenant with Allah; ‘If He gives us of His Bounty, we will make offerings and be of the righteous’ Nevertheless, when He gave them of His Bounty, they were niggardly of it, and turned away, swerving aside. So as a consequence He put hypocrisy into their hearts, until the Day they meet Him, for that they failed Allah in that they promised Him and they were liars. Did they not know that Allah knows their secret and what they conspire together, and that Allah knows the things unseen.” [IX; 75-78].

And Allah speaks the truth as He says, “And expend in the way of Allah; and cast not yourselves by your own hands into destruction.” [II; 195], and “Surely man was created fretful, when evil visits him, impatient, when good visits him, grudging; save those that pray and contrive at their prayers, those in whose wealth is a right known for the beggar and the outcast, who confirm the Day of Doom.” [LXX; 19-26].

(1)     Omar bin Abdul-Aziz, may Allah be pleased with him, was really one of the Rightly Guided Caliphs. He was a great scholar and Imam of ideal manners and perfect character. Al-Thawri narrated that other scholars were mere disciples of Omar bin Abdul-Aziz . He, may Allah be pleased with him, was quoted as saying, “ Ever since I learned that telling lies degrades its people, I have never told lies. He passed away in 101 H.

(2)     Tha’labah bin Hatib was one of the hypocrites of Madinah. It is worth mentioning that there was another Companion of the Messenger of Allah called Tha’labah bin Hatib Al-Ansari, who was venerable and witnessed the battle of Badr.