I ended the last article on a question to readers that also removed any doubts on Islam’s position on poverty alleviation. Researching further, I got mystified how profound the meaning of this one small verse is. I summed up below my further findings on the verse but let me first reiterate it for ease of reference: “And in their wealth, the beggar and the outcast had due share.”
The first thing is that the payer of Zakah must not consider even for a minute that he is giving charity and that the receiver should be grateful for the favor done for him. On the contrary, the payer of Zakah needs to think that he is in fact redeeming the debt which he owed to the receiver.
Apply this to a real-life situation where you have actually borrowed money from someone, and the time has come for you to repay. While handing back the money, would the lender thank you for paying back or would you thank him for coming to your rescue?
Obviously, it will be you thanking him for lending the money when you were in real need. It is precisely the same situation when you pay Zakah to someone, as if you are paying back the debt. In other words, it was the receiver’s right, and the payer has simply discharged his duty.
I had earlier explained the difference between the poor and the needy, that the poor are the outspoken ones who ask or demand for help and the needy do not openly ask, being self-respecting, shy and quiet people. The payer of Zakah is required to search for the latter type of people and discreetly help them rather than waiting for them to come to him.
This golden principle saw to it that there was no orphan who was left behind, no widow who was not helped, no disabled person who was not aided, no jobless person who was not assisted and no one hit by a calamity who was not compensated. In short, there was no needy whose situation the Zakah payers might have known and yet might have resisted to help them.
What made people act in such a kind manner? Well, firmly believing in the verse, they served needy fellow human beings with Zakah money, not as a favor to them but as their duty. In fact, the habit of taking care of needy people got them so refined that they did not confine themselves to the 2.5% annual Zakah threshold thinking they are now relieved but went way beyond it.
So, you can see how discharging the obligatory charity purifies a person, makes him virtuous and creates the sense of urgency to help the downtrodden. Where would poverty be in such a society?
The question arises as to how do we emulate the said noble model in Islamic societies in this day and age with an aim to achieve the same result in the same shortest possible time?
In my opinion, we will have to examine how the Bait Al Maal concept worked in the early Islamic era, and more importantly how it got to be established. Bait Al Maal means the home of money or wealth. In modern terminology, you could loosely compare it to a country’s treasury or the ‘Ministry of Finance’.
It was the second caliph, Caliph Omar Al Khattab who in circa 635 AD dedicated a separate building where the spoils of war were stored. Money was added to Bait Al Maal when the governor from Bahrain sent a large amount and it was strongly felt to save it for future needs rather than distribute it among Muslims immediately, which was the custom then. The reason for change in practice was that the Muslim population had prospered and there were very few people who needed financial assistance.
Gradually, the Bait Al Maal function got expanded and Zakah was collected and added to the treasury besides the Jizya or a form of levy on non-Muslims for living in an Islamic state and enjoying the benefits. Jizya was the alternative for Zakah since the latter is only applied on Muslims. The function of Bait Al Maal got further expanded when the non-perishable food items also started to be stored in it as a reserve for any drought or calamity situation.
The Islamic state was made responsible to take care of all needy people and hence the entire Zakah amount, either in kind or cash, was handed by the people to Bait Al Maal. The need was not felt for the Zakah payer to first look around in his family for needy people since the state was fulfilling the duty to take care of them very well. Also, the self-esteem of the Zakah receiver was respected and preserved since he received the amount from Bait Al Maal and not from his richer relative.
A proper register was introduced in which all incoming and outgoing money and goods were noted. Hence, you got a complete sketch of the world’s first-ever welfare state running on most professional lines. A scholar said that the welfare states we see in the European and Scandinavian countries could provide a glimpse as to how Bait Al Maal would have worked. In fact, it would not be incorrect to say that the concept has been borrowed by such countries from the early Islamic era.
The purpose of this educative series and the article is not to hurt any religious or commercial sentiments either consciously or even unwittingly.
Sohail Zubairi is an Islamic finance specialist, AAOIFI-certified Shariah advisor and auditor as well as CIAE-certified Islamic arbitrator and expert. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Next week: SDGs to be continued.