Treatise on Zakat (1)

In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful, Praise is to Allah Alone, and peace and blessings be upon the Prophet and his family and Companions The First Treatise: Important Issues on Zakat  This treatise aims at exhorting and reminding the significance of the Zakat towards which most Muslims are very careless […]

In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful, Praise is to Allah Alone, and peace and blessings be upon the Prophet and his family and Companions

The First Treatise: Important Issues on Zakat
 This treatise aims at exhorting and reminding the significance of the Zakat towards which most Muslims are very careless as they are not particular in giving it out, in spite of the fact that it is one of the five pillars of Islam and that without it Islam cannot be firmly established. The Prophet  said: “Islam is based on five (pillars): To testify that there is no God except Allah, and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah; To offer Sal& (prayer); To pay Zakat (obligatory charity); To  observe Sawn (fasts during the month of Ramadan) and; To perform Hajj (pilgrimage to Makkah).”
It is obligatory upon every Muslim, in possession of wealth, to pay Zakat (obligatory charity). This Islamic command has many advantages of which some are mentioned below.
1. It meets the needs of the poor of the society.
2. It strengthens the good relations between the rich and the poor, as everyone is naturally inclined towards the one who does good to him.
3. It purifies one’s self and sanctifies it; and it purges one’s moral of covetousness and miserliness; as is stated in the Qur’an: “Take Sadaqa (alms) from their wealth in order to purify them and sanctify them with it” (9:103).
4. It promotes open-handedness, generosity and sympathy in a Muslim towards the needy persons.
5. It draws Allah’s blessing; causes increase in wealth and the replacement of spent out; as Allah describes: “And whatsoever you spend of anything (in Allah’s cause), He will replace it. He is the Best of those Who grant Sustenance.” (34:39).
And also the Prophet has stated in an authentic Hadith that Allah says: “O Children of Adam! If you give (in Allah’s cause), We shall give you.”
And there are many more benefits in it. On the contrary, a severe punishment would fall upon those who act miserly and are negligent in paying out the Zakat. Allah says regarding them: “And those who hoard up gold and silver (Al-Kanz—the money, the Zakat of which has not been paid), and spend it not in the way of Allah,—announce unto them a painful torment. On the Day when that (AI-Kanz: money, gold and silver, etc., the Zakat of which has not been paid) will be heated in the fire of Hell and with it will be branded their foreheads, their flanks, and their backs: (and it will be said unto them): This is the treasure which you hoarded for yourselves. Now taste of what you used to hoard’.” (9: 34,35)
The above verses clarify that the wealth on which Zakat has not been paid, is a hoarded treasure for which its owner would be punished on the Day of Resurrection. The same has also been described by the Prophet in the following Hadith: “1f any owner of gold or silver does not pay what is due on him, when the Day of Resurrection would come, plates of fire would be beaten out for him; these would then be heated in the fire of Hell, and his sides, his forehead and his back would be cauterized with them. Whenever these cool down, (the process is) repeated during a day the extent of which would be 50,000 years, until judgement is pronounced among slaves, and he sees whether his path is to take him to Paradise or to Hell.”
Then the Prophet informed of the owners of the camels, cows, and goats; who do not pay their Zakat, that they would be punished on the Day of Judgement.
The Prophet is said: “Whoever is made wealthy by Allah and does not pay the Zakat of his wealth, then on the Day of Resurrection, his wealth will be made like a bald-headed poisonous male snake with two black spots over the eyes (or two poisonous glands in its mouth). The snake will encircle his neck and bite his cheeks and say, ‘I am your wealth, I am your treasure’.”
Then the Prophet recited the noble verse: “And let not those who covetously withhold of that which Allah has bestowed on them of His Bounty (wealth) think that it is good for them (and so they do not pay the obligatory Zakat).
“Nay, it will be worse for them; the things which they covetously withheld shall be tied to their necks like a collar on the Day of Resurrection.” (3:180)
Zakat is obligatory on the following four types of
property:
I. The produce of earth, like grains and fruits.
2. The grazing animals.
3. Gold and silver.
4. Commercial commodities.
For all types of properties, Nisab (minimum amount of property liable to the payment of Zakcit) is fixed, below which no Zakcit would be imposed on them.
The minimum quantity for the first category i.e. grains, fruits, (wheat, rice, dates, grapes, barley, etc.) is 5 (five) Wasq and one Wasq (approx. 135 kgs.) is 60 (sixty) Sa‘ according to the Su’ of the Prophet,  and one is equivalent to nearly four times of both handsful of a man of average built.
Moreover, if in cultivation, irrigation was made through rains or canal or fountain and like this without any effort, one-tenth of the total produce is due to be paid as Zakat.
If the field was irrigated by waterwheels, and other devices for irrigation which involved labour; twentieth part of the total produce is to be paid as Zakat.
And regarding the Zakat of animals, detailed study of it may be had from the authentic Ahadith of the Prophet or from scholars of Ahadith, as we intend in this booklet only a brief account of the subject.
And the minimum amount (Nisab) of silver for the Zakat to be due on it, is 140 (one hundred and forty) Mithqal, which is equivalent to 56 (fifty-six) Saudi Riyals.
And the Nisciti of gold is 20 (twenty) Mithqcil which is equivalent to 113/7 (eleven and three-seventh) Saudi Junaih or 92 (ninety-two) grams.
A  compilation by Sheikh Abdul-Aziz bin Abdullahi bin Baz and translated by DSP Imam Ahmad Adam Kutubi