Turning a recipient into a giver in due course | Who really cares about calculating Zakat, and paying it in an institutional format?

How many people you know follow a standardized zakat calculator and take care to track the impact of their zakat deposits? How many institutions/buyutul amwal you know, create jobs on annual basis for local beneficiaries? Do you know even one beggar-free town or any small village where everyone can freely access local bayt al mal for qard-i-hasan?  Why don’t you invest in and take loans from interest free credit cooperatives – such as Crescent Cooperative Limited Anantnag? Are you sure zakat dues were meticulously calculated by your deceased relatives, and if not the same were factored in or cleared at the time of death? What will fatiha do if unpaid zakat dues remain in the account of the deceased? What are his/her inheritors doing? Have you written a will for some part of property you own or take measures so that your inheritors don’t take your wealth without clearing zakat dues from the day you turned sahib-i nisab till death from the wealth you leave? How many people you know who spend money on fatiha/anniversaries but don’t bother to clear the debt due to God (zakat) from their left over wealth?

A functional institution of zakat means none of us need to worry about future exigencies, accidents and loss of wealth – the community shall pay for our needs in the hour of need. But imagine a sumo driver or fruit seller getting a debilitating disease or suffering accident or someone losing house in fire or needing a kidney and we don’t find automatically zakat/infaq cheque issued to help. Isn’t it the case that so many die for want of medicine or fail to get quality education or job or loan or accommodation? Isn’t there widespread poverty, unemployment, malnutrition, lack of access to required credit or housing in many pockets of the Muslim world? You and me are responsible for every victim of want and desperation we see around. Consider the following problems implying our zakat consciousness is almost dead and this constitutes criminal negligence of us all regarding the rights of extended neighbourhood.

Evidences of  Negligence

·       Those who give zakat or are conscious about its exact calculus fail to bother about its consumptive nature as distinguished from productive one. They, with few exceptions, don’t pool it to help someone create or sustain or job or expand his enterprise.

·       Where is the zakat on many thousands of crores of deposits in banks in J&K? If people really paid it, they would have thought of investing it in more profitable non-interest based enterprises as inflation plus zakat would annually reduce value of deposits by around 4%.

·       Surveys done in one of the towns of Kashmir show most people miss paying zakat. We wouldn’t be receiving any posts for helping anyone if local bayut al amwal took care of local people or people deposited zakat/ushr institutionally.

·       Surveys reveal that in most villages/colonies around less than 15% may be mustahiq-i zakat and more than 85% are required to give zakat/ushr/fitrana or other forms of sadaqah/infaq. Put another way, it is only one out of 15 neighbors/relatives we know who falls in zakat recipients category (in certain areas, not even one in 50) and if the rest of 14 meticulously calculate it and extend it for some productive work by the recipient, they would be taken care of and pulled out of recipient status in a year only.

·       Though local bayut al-amwal can take care of basic problems of all but none solves all problems of even a few. They can create a few jobs, make a house or two, fund treatment of cancer patients.  Their negligence forces people to appeal every quarter for help. The fact that someone is in desperate need for anything means our societal responsibility has been abdicated and we collectively deserve punishment and this we find everywhere. Some minority communities in Muslims and Sikhs are well known to have good system in place so that none feels abandoned or need to beg.  In less than five years all would be lifted up from the status of recipients to that of givers (muzakki).

·       When we examine total budget of bayut al-amwal and the trusts or organizations that receive zakat, it totals few crores only which is not even 1/10000th of the due amount figures there. Where does the zakat go? Zakat due from deposits in banks only is in thousands of crores as deposits are much over hundred thousand crores. Where does the zakat go then? It is said to be given individually and secretly to one’s relatives or neighbours. This is problematic as this continues cycle of dependence, too little amount can’t help pull the receiver out of recipient status and the giver can’t individually monitor the recipient to help him/her develop an enterprise. Zakat is ordained to be paid institutionally for best results.

·       Zakat is to be paid on wealth and as such orphan’s and insane’s wealth can’t be excluded. Let us ask their guardians or charity based organizations how they cater to this. Given there is no institution that maintains account of wealth of normal people how could there be expected to be one for the orphans and the insane.

          Some points on Infaq  similarly show that so few care. How many have vacant houses or big houses that have vacant halls, washrooms, rooms that could be offered for community functions, thrown open to students/travelers/scholars/new institutions? If all of us contributed only one hour a week or one day a year for community by registering for infaq services on the platform ZIST is making available,  for whatever skills one has, we can make free houses, give free tuition, free healthcare, free food in community langars, free accommodation in khanqahs or specially made community centres, free marriages, carve wellness centres in every village, create and sustain hundreds of cooperative agri-livestock farms that shall provide access to free mutton, milk, poultry, vegetables, fruits etc, free stitching of clothes and many more free services for community in general and poor/needy in particular. Islamic universalism means everyone in need anywhere regardless of caste or creed or colour will have community to lean upon in case of any genuine need/exigency/debt crisis. Food, shelter, clothes, education, healthcare are our rights that community has to provide for and help the State in facilitating.

Solution by ZIST: Professional Zakat Calculation and Spending and Moving towards Investment Mode

Given these and many other issues, it was thought to come together through Zakat, Sadaqah and Infaq Trust (ZIST) manned by professionals/academicians for making us aware of what we owe to others, calculate zakat/infaq professionally, preferably pay it at source every month and not wait for the end of year, create model villages/buyutal amwal that volunteer to institute collective zakat for productive purpose and collaborate with ZIST and see how we transform lives and communities.

The idea of giving – dhan/infaq – is in every religious tradition and let us compete with one another in righteous action or creating such services that help the other. Indian people are great givers as evidenced in Vinoba’s Bhoodan movement in which millions of acres of land were donated, great treasuries of temples/shrines, 24×7 open langar/space for accommodation in some Gurduwaras/shrines. Let us register today only our availability and availability of our skills, excess resources/zakat/sadaqah for such institutions that you can trust for their professionalism, transparency, accessibility, impact tracking of your contributions and vision or for the ZIST. With the help of ZIST, beneficiary or kith and kin you have in mind can be reached out for help as it is donor mediated and he/she is linked with the productive enterprise as silent partner for sustained help.

Fortunately we have sheep that multiplies zakat invested in purchasing it within a year and from this wealth of progeny we can support new beneficiaries. Your one lac is converted into 8-10 young possibly pregnant ewes that yield lambs which achieve 30-35kg weight in 6-7 months thus making more than one lac available for giving to another beneficiary, to be given preferably in kind who gets the basal stock for multiplication in the same way from next year and the chain continues. One year’s productive zakat sustains, for a number of years, a number of jobs; and within few years we will have farmers out of zakat recipient category.

In case of extending zakat as qard-i-hasan, ZIST is considering to facilitate those who choose to help farmers by way of zakat to get quality lamb meet (aam deund). This can transform lives.  There are many ways of integrating agro-industry with the institutional distribution of Zakat. If the plan is worked out professionally, and a set of services needed in this enterprise networked effectively, it can generate jobs for many, besides providing quality food, mostly protein based, to a vast number of our population.

Zakat is to be paid on almost every kind of jewelry whether used occasionally or kept in safe keeping.  It is to be paid on things/spaces – vehicles, shops, furniture, tents or anything that earns that you have given on rent. If one has taken a loan, like the companies and big businesses take for investment, and it mostly remains with them as a saving, then, some scholars opine that  zakat is to be given for this amount. If this loan is for some kind of investment (in land/business/asset creation) it would be calculated as capital for business and thus can’t be deducted  while making zakat calculations. On qard i hasan extended to someone, zakat is to be calculated  as well. Although some require actual return of qard as a condition, some don’t for paying zakat.  Expenses on farming can’t be deducted from ushr calculation. Zakat is also to be paid for livestock if for breeding, and are upto nisab. If for sale or business then zakat on business formula applies – if their value is equivalent to nisab (200 dirham) 2.5% zakat is to be paid on them.

Our ultimate objective should not be to hoard wealth and then pay zakat as hoarding charges, but invest what is above nisab. You can well plan your zakat giving in a way that you shift to investment mode (invest whatever exceeds nisab) in due course and get returns back and help community in turn as well and yourself. That earns more merit in the eyes of God. One can get back what is taken up by income tax/zakat or factored in if given to registered charities with 80G certificates if you wisely plan your finances/savings.

Compared to fixed deposits that don’t earn even compensation for current inflation, gold that can suffer depreciation and gives returns that compare with fixed deposits, risky speculative stock market (huge percentage of ordinary less smart investors report losses) and somehow better mutual funds, sheep farming share can help you earn over 30% returns on investment and it has additional blessings as mentioned by the Prophet (SAW); assured growth and no market risk and local community/farmer empowerment.

Who doesn’t need qurbani animal/mutton and why not invest in hassle free shariah compatible interest free mudhariba format with local framers? Farmers are ready to be tied up with local investors.

Help them at least by pre-booking your qurbani/mutton requirements and you will get a significant discount as well (quality milk teeth – aam deund – mutton home delivered and cut of one’s choice around 600/kg or even lesser rate and 300/kg live weight or less on qurbani animal). Earlier you pre-book and greater the investment or share, more discount you get.

If we care about zakat none would feel need to beg or go from pillar to post or approach dozens of NGOs for help. I suggest we anticipate annual zakat  due and pay at source (from monthly salary),  give credit (qard i hasan) to God’s bank and see how barakah follows and one is insured against many kinds of losses/unimagined evils of various kinds, use standard zakat calculator today only and file corresponding zakat returns annually as one fills income tax returns.

Dr. Muhammed Maroof Shah, a published author, columnist.

HIGHLIGHTERS

• A functional institution of zakat means none of us need to worry about future exigencies, accidents and loss of wealth – the community shall pay for our needs in the hour of need.

• You and me are responsible for every victim of want and desperation we see around.

·       Zakat is ordained to be paid institutionally for best results.

• Indian people are great givers as evidenced in Vinoba’s Bhoodan movement in which millions of acres of land were donated.

• One year’s productive zakat sustains, for a number of years, a number of jobs; and within few years we will have farmers out of zakat recipient category.