Zakat (alms tax)

The jurists define zakat as the transfer of a fixed portion of a defined wealth to a defined recipient — the third pillar after the two testimonies and the prayer ^{1 2}. Abu'l-Wafa' al-Maraghi lists the thresholds in his Qadaya: five camels, thirty cattle, forty sheep; twenty mithqals of gold and two hundred dirhams of silver, at a quarter-tenth ³; a tenth on rain-fed crops and half on irrigated, and a fifth on minerals and buried treasure ⁴. Its eight Qur'anic categories of recipients bind the worship of wealth to the service of society.

Sha'rawi says zakat is so named because it appears to be a loss but is in truth a gain, and that riba is the reverse: it appears to be an increase but is in truth a loss. ⁵ He holds that the believer who pays zakat can be sure that the act is recorded with God as a reward that is multiplied, and that zakat, charity and the other acts of God's way are repaid many times over. ^{5 6}

The Sheikh works an arithmetic example: on a thousand, twenty-five is due, and nine hundred and seventy-five remains with its owner (needs_source) ⁷.

He contrasts what stays with the owner and what goes to his poor brothers, and counts withholding zakat as clinging to this world ⁸. He says that the surahs of Juz' Amma come to awaken the servant, as do the five prayers with the call to come to prayer and come to success ⁸.

The Sheikh holds that once a person has the four basics, whatever is beyond them is surplus, and that zakat may be given to someone whom we want to feed, give drink, clothe, house, treat or marry ¹¹. He counts these as six uses (needs_source) ¹¹.

The Sheikh says that every Muslim living in a camp today makes all the wealthy Muslims sinful, and calls for providing him with a source of clean water and a home ⁹.

He says that any Muslim to whom food, drink and medicine do not reach with dignity, because of oppression, coercion or occupation, makes every capable person who says there is no god but God sinful ¹⁰.

He says that the zakat of about five countries last year came to roughly 582 billion dollars, and asks whether, had that sum been paid out, there would still be camp dwellers (needs_source) ¹².