Right to ask the distribution of Zakaat
Mu'
meneen Brothers and Sisters,
As
Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh. (May Allah's
Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)
One
of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:
they
collect so much money all over the world in the name of zakat and wajebat .MY question is
that if i am paying zakat
i have a right to ask them how they distribute my
zakat?
(There may be some
grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement. The forum does not
change anything from questions, comments and statements received from our
readers for circulation in confidentiality.)
Answer:
In the
name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness.
Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray,
none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is no one (no idol, no person, no grave, no prophet, no imam, no dai, nobody!) worthy of worship but Allah
Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the
seal of His Messengers.
Allah
Subhanah has made it an obligatory duty unto every
believer to share a portion of his excess wealth with the poor and needy of the society.
In an established Islamic State, the Islamic government will collect the
zakat from the rich, and distribute it to the poor and
needy. But in this day and age, where there is no established Islamic State, it
becomes the responsibility of each individual to pay this zakaat himself and purify his wealth according to commands
of Allah and His Messenger (saws).
If one
is unable to distribute his zakaah dues personally,
there is no harm if one pays his zakaah dues to an
organization that he trusts to do the distribution for him. But if he doubts that the organization is
not spending the zakat dues as they should be spent,
he has every right to ask where the money is being spent and on whom; and if he
is not given a satisfactory answer, he has every right to distribute his zakat personally or give it a better and more God-Fearing
organization.
In the
times of the Prophet (saws) and the Ameer ul Mumineen, the collection and
distribution of zakaah was absolutely transparent and
any common person would come and ask them where and how the zakat was being collected and spent. No one was more trustworthy than
the Messenger of Allah (saws), his noble ‘ahle-bayt’
and his noble companions in the annuls of Islam… and when it was possible that a
common person could ask them in public about the collection and distribution of
zakat, there is absolutely no reason why, today, one
cannot ask the organization to produce a proper account of where and how the
zakat is being spent!
We are
aware that the ‘kothaar’ collects the zakaah dues (and many other illegal dues like wajebaat, khums,
sabeel,
niyaaz,
nazrul-maqaam, this fund, that fund, etc.), but never ever give an account of how
much is collected and how they spend it! Leave alone ask about the
total collection and/or distribution, one is not even allowed to ask where his
own zakat is being spent without being ostracized by
the leadership! No one is
above the law of Allah and His Messenger (saws) in Islam, and every believer has a right to
demand and know where and how the public funds are being
spent.
The
‘kothaar’ never publish their accounts of zakaat, nor is the system of zakaat collection and distribution transparent! Allah Alone knows where and how
they spent the millions of dollars they demand and collect as zakaah money from their followers. If they were indeed spending the
zakaah funds where they are supposed to spend as per
the commandments of Allah, they would have nothing to hide and would have made
them transparent.
We
originate from a small village in
We
have received several letters from our Bohra brothers
on the forum regarding this extortion issue and would like to share one of those
with you:
There
is another aspect for the male members--to pay the annual contributions for the
establishment, vajibat(zakat
etc), then payment under 13 or 14 heads, masjid
fund, hajj fund, ramazan niaz, muharram niaz, doat niaz and what not, the last being sila and fitra. The total for our
family is near about Rs xxxxx. All the contributions are collected under
duress. The very poor who
deserve to receive the
benifit of zakat are asked to borrow and beg to pay because payment of
zakt is a must for every muslim.
May
Allah guide these leaders and instill the fear of the accountability of an
Inevitable Day when they will have to stand in the Court of Allah and give a
full accounting of the atrocities they commit in the name of Islam! Had they known the punishment of the ones
who misappropriate funds from the public treasury from the Holy Quran and the Sunnah of the
Messenger (saws); they would have feared Allah and the accounting of a Very
Severe Day!
Allah
says in the Holy Quran Chapter 9 Surah Taubah verses 34-35:O you who believe!
There are indeed many among the priests and the holy men who
devour the wealth of others by evil means, and debar the people from
the Way of Allah. Give them
the good news of a painful torment, who hoard up gold
and silver and do not expend these in the Way of Allah. The Day shall surely come when the
same gold and silver shall be heated in the fire of Hell, and with it will be
branded their foreheads, their bodies and their backs. (And it will be said): “Here is
that treasure you had hoarded up for yourselves! Taste now the evil of your hoarded
treasure!”
Yahya
related from Malik from Abd
ar-Rahman ibn Said from
Amr ibn Shuayb that when the Messenger of Allah (saws), came back
from Hunayn heading for al-Jiirrana, the people crowded around so much to question him
that his she-camel backed into a tree, which became entangled in his cloak and
pulled it off his back. The
Messenger of Allah (saws) said, "Return my cloak to me. Are you afraid that I will not
distribute among you what Allah has given you as spoils. By He in
whose hand my self is! Had Allah
given you spoils equal to the number of acacia trees on the plain of Tihama, I would have distributed it among you. You will not find me to be
miserly, cowardly, or a liar."
Then the Messenger of Allah (saws) got down and stood among the people,
and said,
"Hand over even the needle and thread, for stealing from the
spoils is disgrace, fire, ignominy on the Day of Rising for people who do
it." Then he took a bit of
camel fluff or something from the ground and said, "By He in whose hand my self
is! What Allah has made
spoils for you is not mine - even the like of this! - except for the tax of one
fifth, and the tax of (even that) one fifth is returned to
you."
Yahya
related from Malik from Thawr ibn Zayd ad-Dili from Abu'l-Ghayth Salim, that Abu Hurayra said, "We went out with the Messenger of Allah
(saws) in the year of Khaybar. We did not capture any gold or silver
except for personal effects, clothes, and baggage. Rifaa
ibn Zayd presented a black
slave boy to the Messenger of Allah (saws) whose name was Midam.
The Messenger of Allah (saws) made for Wadi'l-Qura, and when he arrived there, Midam was unsaddling the camel of the Messenger of Allah
(saws)
when a stray arrow struck and killed him. The people said, 'Good luck to him! The Garden!'
The Messenger of Allah (saws) said, 'No! By He in whose hand my self
is! The cloak which he took
from the spoils on the Day of Khaybar before they were
distributed will blaze with fire on him.'
Sahih
Al-Bukhari Hadith 4.308
Narrated by Abdullah bin Amr
There
was a man who looked after the family and the belongings of the Prophet (saws)
and he was called Karkara. The man died and Allah's Apostle
(saws) said, "He is in the (Hell) Fire." The people then went to look at
him and found in his place, a cloak he had stolen from the war
booty.
Whatever
written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and
whatever of error is of me. Allah
Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.
Your
Brother in Islam,
