> Zakah, a Social Institution

                                   Zakah, a Social Institution

  This is an extract from book " Let us be Muslim " by moulana Abul Ala Moududi  ( R A )                                                                       

                                                                                                                                 


Allah's Unique Beneficence :


Brothers in Islam! Infaq fi Sabili 'llah (spending in the way of God) is the phrase frequently used in the Qur'an to denote Zakah, and other acts of charity (sadaqat). Very often Allah invites us to 'give Him a loan', that is whatever we spend in His cause He will treat as a loan which He will return with huge growth in our original investment.




What does this mean? Does it mean, for example, that the Lord of all the worlds is (God forbid) your dependent? That He needs to borrow from us? That He needs to beg from us? How can such a thing be! Is it not by His largesse alone that our lives are sustained? Does not our food and everything else we possess, rich and poor alike, all come from Him as a gift? Beggars, millionaires and multimillionaires: we are all His dependants. So how can He need to ask us for a loan?


The answer lies not in terms of God's needs, for He had none, but in His love and unbounded generosity towards you. When He 'ask' for a loan what He purports to say is this: This expenditure is made in My cause and I accept it as My obligation to repay it. The needy of your communities have no way of repaying you, so I will do it on their behalf. When you help your poor relatives, the obligation to repay is not on them but on Me; I will recompense you for this favour. Whatever you give to orphans, widows, the disabled and the homeless, will be entered against My account. If your borrowers are unable to pay you Back, do not threaten them with prison, do not make them sell off their possessions, do not make their wives and children homeless by evicting them, your debt is not owed by them but by Me. If they return the capital I will pay interest on it, and if they cannot do even this, I will pay you both capital and interest. Indeed every time you spend something for your social welfare, for the good and betterment of your fellow beings. I shall consider it as a 'favour' to Me - even though you yourselves will benefit. Every single penny of it I shall return to your along with huge, unimaginable profits.


Imagine how generously the Most-merciful, the King of kings treats you. Although all that you possess is a gift from Him and belongs to Him alone, and although whatever you spend, you spend on your own families, relatives, communities, or on your collective well-being, and not on Him, He nevertheless says: You have given it to Me; I will return it to you.


Allah is indeed great: the Lord of the worlds alone could exhibit such sublime generosity; no human being can ever conceive of approaching it.


Man's Selfishness :


Why has Allah chosen to speak in such a manner? Why does He arouse in us the spirit of charity and generosity through such logic? The more you reflect on this the more you will become convinced of the power and purity of Islamic teaching. Your hearts will grow in the faith that such matchless sublimity could emanate from none but God.


Man by his very nature is capable of doing wrong and acting without reason. His perceptions are limited; he is narrow-minded; he finds it difficult to embrace lofty ideals. He is selfish, and his vision of human interest, too, does not embrace any wider context. By nature he is imbued with impatience and love of what is immediately at hand. 'Man is created out of haste' (Al-Ambiyaa' 21: 37). If he does not see any immediate results and benefits in something, he thinks that it has no value, nor does he consider it worth doing. He is unable to see his actions in a wider or long term context or to judge the benefits which may accrue to Him from them.


This inherent weakness of looking to selfish interests and that, too, in a very narrow perspective, leads him to be constantly on the look-out for quick, specific and personal gain from what he does. He says, for example: I am the owner and sole beneficiary of whatever I have earned or whatever I have inherited, and nobody has a share in it. It should, therefore, be spent on fulfilling my needs and desires, on providing me comfort, physical pleasures and luxuries. If spent otherwise, it should at least bring me fame and honour: some title, some high office, some devotion, some admiration and applause. There is no point in parting with my money if it does not achieve these things.


Why should I take on the responsibility of helping an orphan? His father should have made provision for him. And why should I bother about the problems a widow may have? Her husband ought to have thought earlier about what would happen to her if he died. What has it got to do with me if a travellers is in trouble? He should never have left home without having made all the necessary arrangements. People in trouble should help themselves; Allah has given them hands and feet the same as me. And if I do give anyone some money, I must give it as a loan, on which I shall expect to receive interest. Otherwise my money is not working for me. I could have better used it to build a new house or buy a new car or for investment purposes. If the borrower is going to benefit why should not I as well?


What Selfishness Leads To ?


A rich man with such a selfish attitude is like a snake guarding treasure. If he spends anythings, he will only spend or lend for personal aggrandizement or to make more money. He will, in fact, fleece a poor man by taking Back from him more than he has given him. If he gives anything to a destitute person, he will stress upon him his favours and will insult and humiliate him to destroy his self-respect. If he has to take part in some social work, his first concern will be to examine how much will his personal benefit from it be. And if he can see no personal gain, his support will not be forthcoming.


What are the consequences of this selfish disposition? It is fatal not only for community life, but ultimately for that person himself. When selfishness prevails, wealth concentrates in a few hands and the poor become poorer. The rich, on the strength of the money they already have, continue to draw more money into their coffers, while the poor find life harder and harder.


A poverty-stricken society breeds various eveils. General health declines and people become less resistant to illness. Productivity dwindles. Unemployment rises. Ignorance increases. Morals deteriorate. People turn to crime to fulfil their basic needs. And, ultimately, they loot and plunder. Widespread unrest and rioting break out. The rich are murders and their houses burnt and ransacked. Wholesale destruction follows and society collapses.


Individuals and Collective Welfare :


You can now see how the well-being of every individual is iNextricably linked with that of the society at large. If you help your neighbours with the wealth you possess, then that wealth will circulate and come Back to you bringing many more benefits. But if you keep it selfishly to yourselves or spend it only for your own personal benefit, it will ultimately dwindle and lose its value.


For example, if you bring up an orphan and give him an education which enables him to become an earning member of the community, you will have contributed to the overall wealth of the community, and, as members of it yourselves, you will also share in the increased prosperity your action has generated, even though you may not be able to put it on your balance sheet. But if you say, 'Why should we help him, his father should have left something for him; then he will never be able to contribute anything to the wealth of the community; In fact, he may well become a professional criminal and burgle your own houses. By refusing to help make this person a useful member of society, you would have harmed not only him but yourselves too.


If you look around, you will see that people who spend money selflessly for the good of the community tend to flourish: the wealth that is created returns with countless extra benefits to the pockets from which it came. And people who keep their money to themselves through selfishness and avarice, apparently increasing their wealth by lending at interest, or by indulging in exploitation, are in reality, in the long term, ensuring their own destruction. This is the law which Allah has described thus:


God deprive interest of all blessing, but charitable deeds he blesses to increase with interest (al-Baqarah 2: 276).


And whatever you give on interest, so that it may increase through people's wealth, increases not with God; whereas what you give in Alms, seeking God's countenance, it is they who shall receive recompense manifold (al-Rum 30: 39).


Man's selfishness and ignorance all too often prevent him grasping this reality and acting on it. Being a slave of material things, he sees only the money which jingles in his pocket and the savings which continue to grow in his pocket and the savings which continue to grow in his bank account. Spending money makes sense to him only if he can see an immediate and direct return from it. He attaches no value to the benefits which will accrue to him by helping the society in which he lives. He is unable to comprehend how the wealth given away for the sake of God alone grows manifold. He is unable to unravel the knot of his ignorance.


That is how we have arrived at the position we find ourselves in today. On the one hand is the world of capitalists which continues to grow through interest and exorbitant profiteering, which brings in its wake far more problems than can be solved by the apparent continuing growth in wealth. And on the other hand, groups have emerged, their hearts aflame with jealousy, who are bent upon not only emptying the coffers of capitalists but, with it, also destroying the whole basis of human culture and civilization.

What is the Solution?

The only solution to this problem is that given by that All-wise God who has guided us through the Qur'an. Faith in Allah and faith in the Last Day constitute the keys to changing this situation. If you have faith in Allah and believe that He is the real Lord of all the treasures on earth and in the heavens, that sovereignty over human affairs rests in Him only, and that He will reward or punish you all in the Hereafter according to your deeds, down to the minutest atom, you did on earth - if you believe all these things, putting your trust in God rather than your own inclinations, will and strength to spend your wealth will inevitably follow. You will spend as and when directed by God, disregarding the question of profit and loss which you will leave entirely to Him. Whatever you spend in this way will be in fact a present to God Himself and God will surely know it and acknowledge it  - whether men recognize it or not - either in the Hereafter or both in this world and the Next.