Zakat step to alleviate poverty
Zakat is one of the five pillars of Islam. It is one kind of taxes to pay to the have-nots. Abdullah Yusuf Ali from Pakistan translates the word Zakat as regular charity; M.H.Shakir from Iran calls it poor-rate, while Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall from the United Kingdom says it as poor-due.
The very purpose of Zakat is poverty alleviation and since the task involves long-term planning and adequate investment under strong management, it implies upon the State to do the job.
The rate of Zakat is Tk. 2.50 per hundred, i.e. Tk 2500 per one hundred thousand. Any one who has wealth equal to the price of 52 tolas of silver or 7.50 tolas of gold, whichever is less, will pay the Zakat. Another opinion says if a man or woman has no borrowings to maintain his or her family at the end of the year, he or she will pay Zakat on the savings regardless of the amount. It is payable on the ornaments, livestock, crops, and income from trading.
It is so important that Allah curses them who neglect payment of Zakat. We read in the Quran, Surah Ha Mim Sajda, ” Woe unto the idolaters, (And) who give not poor-due and who are disbelievers in the Hereafter.”
We, therefore, should be careful about the importance of Zakat in Islam and human civilisation. In our country, it is done during the month of Ramadan.
Ameer Hamzah
Dhaka
