Lesson 44 Channels of Zakah – Al-Fitr Zakah

Channels of Zakah The eight channels of zakah are: a) The poor whose income, even if it is more than the Nisab, does not suffice their basic needs and those under their care.

b) Those who are indigent; that is, those who have no source of income.

c) Those who administer the zakah department, assigning people for collecting, book keeping, and making lists of people eligible for zakah.

d) The new converts to Islam whose hearts need to be harmonized into the fold of Islam, and some non-Muslims for their good neighborhood or to ward off their harm.

e) The bondsmen who have contracted with their masters to buy themselves out of bondage. They deserve Zakah and should be given enough to pay off their debt to the masters and be freed, or to buy them to set them free (slavery gradually ended among Muslims because of this legislation).

f) People in debt: debtors who are unable to pay their debts, but on condition that the debt is not in a sinful deed which he has not repented of.

g) In the Path of Allah, at the top of which is Jihad for the propagation and vindication of Islam and Muslims, and everything that is of benefit for the Muslim community, including its infrastructure, public utilities and services.

h) The wayfarer. He is the traveler who runs out of money in a strange land.

Taxes collected by contemporary governments do not exempt the Muslims from paying the obligatory zakah because of the clear difference between the two in legislation, system, and the target channels.

Obligatory financial support means to support one’s parents, children and wife. They are not considered among the recipients of zakah.

Zakah Al-Fitr (Breaking the Fast) a)It is obligatory to be paid, with the end of Ramadan, by every Muslim for himself and every person he supports.

b) It is permissible to pay it before the end of Ramadan until the Feast prayers.

Al-Fitr Zakah (Cont.): c) No one is exempted from it, except the one who can not afford the costs of his food for the day and night of the Feast.

d) Its amount per person is equal to three kilograms of the prevalent food in the country such as wheat, rice, barely, dates, raisins, etc. (or the money-equivalent in some Schools of Jurisprudence).

Evidence from the Qur ’ an and Sunnah

Channels of Zakah: Allah says: ﴿إنما الصَّدَقَاتُ لِلْفُقَرَاءِ وَالْمَسَاكِينِ وَالْعَامِلِينَ عَلَيْهَا وَالْمُؤَلَّفَةِ قُلُوبُهُمْ وَفِي الرِّقَابِ وَالْغَارِمِينَ وَفِى سَبِيلِ اللهِ وَابْنِ السَّبِيلِ فَرِيضَةً مِّنَ اللهِ واللهُ عَلِيمٌ حَكِيمٌ﴾ [ التوبة 60]

This means: “As-sadaqat (here it means zakah) are only for the fuqara' (poor), and al-masakin (indigent) and those employed to collect (the funds); and for to attract the hearts of those who have been inclined (towards Islam); and to free the captives; and for those in debt; and for Allah's Cause (i.e. for those fighting in Allah,s path), and for the wayfarer (a traveller who is cut off from everything); a duty imposed by Allah. And Allah is All-Knower, All-Wise.” (At-Tawbah: 60)

Those who administer the zakah department: The Prophet (SAWS) said: “Sadaqah is not to be given to rich man, with the exception of five classes: One who fights in Allah's Path, or one who collects it, or a debtor, or a man who buys it with his money, or a man who has a poor neighbor who has been given Sadaqah and gives a present therefrom to the rich man.” (Reported by Ahmad)

The Prophet (SAWS) said, "If you pay it (zakah) to my messenger you are clear from it and you get its reward; its vice will be upon (the ones) who exchange it." [Ahmad]

The indigents: The Prophet (SAWS) said: “A poor person is not that who goes around begging from people and who can be turned away with a morsel or two, or a date or two. A true needy is that who does not find the sufficient money to make him rich, does not disclose his poverty so that he might be given alms, and does not go around begging.” (Reported by al-Bukhariyy and Muslim)

The debtors: The Prophet (SAWS) said: “Begging is not lawful except for three cases: a case of one who has taken on himself to pay money for settling disputes, for him begging is permissible till the guarantee is discharged and should then refrain. (The second is) a person whose property has been destroyed by a calamity; he is allowed to beg till he attains sufficiency.

(The third case is that of) a person who is in a dire necessity (due to hunger) and whose destitution is affirmed by three authorities. For such person, begging is lawful till he attains what will support him or provide him subsistence. All other begging is unlawful and that who indulges in it would acquire unlawful earnings.” (Reported by Muslim)

Zakah Al-Fitr: `Abdullah Ibn-`Abbas (RA) narrated: “The Prophet of Allah (SAWS) prescribed the sadaqah (zakah) relating to the breaking of the fast as a purification of the fasting from empty and obscene talk and as food for the poor. If anyone pays it before the prayer (of `Id al-Fitr), it will be accepted as zakah. If anyone pays it after the prayer, that will be a sadaqah like other sadaqahs (charity).” (Reported by Ibn-Majah and Abu-Dawud)

Abu-Sa`id al-Khudriyy (RA) narrated: “We used to give one Sa` (a measure equivalent to four Mudds, three kilograms approx.) of meal, or one Sa` of barley, or one Sa` of dates, or one Sa` of dried buttermilk, or one Sa` of raisins (dried grapes) as zakah al-Fitr.” (Reported by al-Bukhariyy and Muslim)