Spend Beyond Zakat, to Win Back Favour of Allah for Believers
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Spend Beyond Zakat, to Win Back Favour of Allah for Believers
Assalamo Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahe Wa Barakatahu.
Hope and pray that this mail finds you in the best of health and Eiman, insha-Allah! May Allah bless you with good health, lots of wealth, peace, prosperity and happiness!
Spend Beyond Zakat, to Win Back Favour of Allah for Believers
Most of us stop "giving" or spending (money on others) at zakat; we feel relaxed for the next one year. Are we right in doing so?<>/b
Will Allah Empower Us in Lieu of An Obligatory Charity?
Now that during Ramadan you have paid your Zakat, the obligatory charity, let us examine if there is more expected from us. May Allah accept your good deeds during Ramadan, and bless you with the best of His rewards! I would like to draw you kind attention to an extremely important aspect of our life which affects the world of islam in a big way.
Most of us stop "giving" or spending (money on others) at zakat; we feel relaxed for the next one year. Are we right in doing so?
Zakat is for purification of wealth only. Is it not? Once we have paid the zakat, we have purified our wealth, and become its rightful owners. Now, spending should start here, right? Does it not end here, in reality? This is a very critical situation wherein believers feel that the problems that we are facing (azaab) is because of the fact that many of us don't pay zakat. However, I feel the major problem lies in the fact that we stop spending (charity) at zakat � we spend no more than zakat. Imagine we were living under a real Islamic government in which zakat would be (forcibly) taken from us (as we now pay tax in most countries). Then, the commandments of Allah relating to charitable spending would most certainly apply to our wealth that remained with us. This is why scholars say, zakat does not belong to us at all. It is the wealth remaining after disposing of the zakat that belongs to us (legal wealth), and that�s what would help us achieve the favours of Allah.
Why zakat payment must not be the end of charitable spending by believers, but the beginning of spending to please Allah? Because Quran refers to spending in hundreds of verses (click here for one example of collection of such verses. Because, when the believers were ready to spend their jaan-o-maal (whatever they had), ready to shed their sweat, blood and tears, they were blessed with highest honours in this world, and were rewarded with the most coveted desire � authority over others (power). They were made the rulers in almost the entire world. Imagine the sahaba who left in Makkah whatever wealth and property they had, when they migrated for the sake of Allah, did their lust of wealth or property stop them? Also recall that when they conquered Makkah, they did not sit on their Makkan wealth there, but came back to settle in Madinah.
Some ulema call zakat as SCUM (dirt) of wealth - remove it so as to purify your wealth. Do you really believe you can bring about any transformation in the society using the scum? Do you love the scum for yourself? If you do, then it is ok, because there is condition on what you must spend for Allah (in the way of God), what you call as charity. Read the following verse and its explanations over and over again.
You can never attain piety unless you spend (in the way of Allah) of what you love; surely Allah will have full knowledge of what you spend. [Quran, 3:92]
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May Allah bless you with true success of this world as well as of the hereafter!
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PS: Actions may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action, so act we MUST.
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Wishing you and all your loved ones greatest of times ahead!
Aspiring 2 c u happy!
Courtesy: Shakeel Ahmad: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
B.Tech (IIT BHU), MBA (XLRI), PMP
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
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Remember, growing older is mandatory. Growing up is optional.
We make a Living by what we get, we make a Life by what we give.
If you fill your heart with regrets of yesterday and the worries of tomorrow, you have no today to be thankful for.--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Compiled, edited and adapted by Khalid Latif
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