Islam's Reformers .pdf

from the table, it will not be accepted as zakât; the rich personmust see the poor or his representative take it. If he, with theintention of zakât, lets a poor person live in his house and if hedoes not charge him, it will not be accepted as zakât, for he hasto give goods to the poor. Of the four types of property of zakât,the legal (mashrû’) State collects the zakât of certain animalsand crops and of the commercial property brought into the cityfrom abroad. But the State has to distribute what it has collectedto poor Muslims, i.e., it collects it as the poor’s proxy. Themoney of zakât cannot be spent for any of the charitable deedssuch as building mosques, fountains, roads or dams orperforming hajj or jihâd. Every type of zakât should be handedto one of the seven kinds of people or to his proxy. The Statecannot use the zakât it has collected in other fields but gives tothe seven kinds of people. It is more blessed for a rich person togive it to his poor relatives, poor pious Muslims and to the poorwho study knowledge. The Hadîth says, “O my umma! I swearby Allâhu ta’âlâ, who has sent me as the Prophet, thatAllâhu ta’âlâ does not accept the zakât given to otherswhile one has poor relatives,” that is, it will not be rewardedin the next world. It cannot be given to mulhids, that is, to thosemen of bid’a who have become unbelievers like theMushabbiha.It is a revolution to overthrow and annihilate the State.Muslims who disobey the commands of a mashrû’ State [1] arebâghîs (rebels). As it is written in Ibn ’Âbidîn’s Radd al-muhtâr,if a Muslim who lives in dâr al-harb or under the oppression ofbâghîs or of a cruel government has given them the zakât ofanimals and ’ushr and knows that what he gave them has beenhanded by them to one of the certain seven kinds of people, orif he himself has distributed them to the poor, a mashrû’ Statecannot take zakât and ’ushr again; but, if they have taken thezakât of gold and silver and commercial goods, the rich personhas to repeat it by giving zakât to the poor. Some booksconsidered bâghîs and cruel governments to be poor people ifthey were Muslims, and regarded it to be jâ’iz for them to collectevery kind of zakât and spend them as they wished. This clearlytells that zakât has to be given to the poor.[1] Mashrû’ means legitimate. A state that is mashrû’ is one that islegitimate according to Islam.- 207 -