CHAPTER 17 ZAKAT (Poor Due, Alms)
WHAT IS ZAKAT
The term “#Zakat” originally means: growth, and purity.
In Islamic #Law, it means paying every lunar year a certain percentage of your savings to certain charitable usage defined by The #Qur’an.
If you have, for that period, an amount of money equal to the value of 85 grams of pure gold (now 1985, is about $1000) or more, you must pay 2.5%.
#Zakat is paid for the #poor and the needy #Muslims, for the wayfarers, for propagating Islam or fighting for #Islam,
for helping new #Muslims or encouraging non-Muslims to embrace Islam, for those who are burdened with debts and are unable to pay them.
If you have #articles of trade, you calculate their #Zakat in the same way.
You can ask some Muslim scholar or refer to any good reference book to know more about Zakat.
WHY WE PAY ZAKAT
To show devotion to Allah Who commanded us to do so and informed us that He loves the charitable.
CHAPTER 18 SAWM, or SIYAM (Fasting)
ABOUT THE FAST
In #Ramadan, (the 9th month of the lunar Islamic year) #Muslims fast in obedience to Allah’s command and in gratitude for Allah’s Grace for revealing His Glorious Book, The Qur’an, in Ramadan.
Sawm (#Fasting) is to abstain from eating, drinking and intimate intercourse from dawn to sunset.
If sick or on a journey, a Muslim is permitted to break his fast.
If he breaks the fast, he has to make it up by fasting a number of days equal to the days in which he broke fasting in Ramadan.
After the end of Ramadan comes “Eid al-Fitr” (the Holy day of Breaking the Fast) which is the 1st day of #Shawwal, the month following Ramadan.
On the Eid morning, all Muslims congregate, in open grounds or in mosques, to perform “ Eid Prayer” to express their happiness and gratitude to Allah for enabling them to complete this duty of Fasting.
Concerning this important duty, Allah says: “O you who believe. #Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, that you may (observe) piety and self-restraint” [The Qur’an 2:183]
Also, He says: “Ramadan is the month in which was sent down The Qur’an, as a guide to mankind,
also clear (signs) for guidance and #judgement (between right and wrong). So, every one of you who is present (at his home, village, or town) during that month should fast it, but if
any one is ill, or on a journey, the prescribed period (should be made up) by other days”. [The #Qur’an 2:185].
WHY WE FAST
We fast in obedience to Allah’s command, and because Allah loves those who fast.
To show our gratitude to Allah’s Grace of sending down His Guidance, The #Qur’an, to guide us and the whole humanity.
To thank Allah for making us of those who believe in The #Qur’an.
And because He enabled us to memorize His Book, to recite it, to study and understand it, and to benefit in its guidance.
To develop control on our material desires Allah planted in our nature.
To control ourselves in front of all things prohibited by #Allah.
#Fasting makes us remember the needy who suffer from hunger and deprivation.
Hence, to become more sympathetic to them and help them with part of what Allah has bestowed upon us.
To check our engrossment in our desires, and increase our care for our spiritual entity through intensifying our deeds and acts of worship in this month of The Qur’an.
To increase our share of sincerity, consience, patience, discipline, as well as many healthful benefits.
Above all these, the great reward Allah promised to give us on the Last Day.
