A healing power in a divided world

In the modern charitable landscape of the Middle East, Zakat is an important motivator and tool for giving, and Ramadan is a time when many Muslims choose to focus their attention on their Zakat obligations.

The value of global Zakat collected and distributed ranges from commentator to commentator, and from hundreds of billions to even surpassing a trillion. This is a testimony to the philanthropic spirit that runs across Muslim communities across the globe and unquestionably through the Gulf.

However, most Zakat donations are directed towards the ‘poor’ (Al-Fuqara) and the ‘needy’ (Al-Masakeen) through humanitarian relief or basic items to support the most vulnerable in society.

This is hardly surprising when so many Muslims are living in poverty due to conflict, displacement, and economic turmoil – and it is very welcome and much needed.  Yet, this concentration on the poor and needy overlooks the fact there are in-fact eight categories of people who are eligible to receive Zakat.

By focusing on the first two categories of eligibility, the other six are neglected. However, in His divine wisdom, God created a framework for community development and nation building by instituting the eight categories together. Moreover, some jurists, including those from the Shaaf’I school of law, believe that for Zakat obligations to be fulfilled, they should be done through an equal spread of funding across the eight categories.

In many circumstances the state is the collector and distributer of Zakat, and as such often prioritises poverty as its primary focus. In the UAE for example, we see many efforts from the state to ensure ease of collection and distribution with dedicated online platforms such as the Zakat Fund. 

All nonprofits, be they faith-led or secular, who are involved in the collection or distribution of Zakat, should be cognisant of these different categories, how they relate to one another, and how the Zakat they are using is contributing to the wider civil society framework.

There are divine connections between each Zakat class that are rarely considered, even though working on them strategically could enable exponential community progress. Taken holistically, the eight categories offer a ‘balanced portfolio’ of channels for development through funding measures thattackle poverty, debt, and social injustice, and boost education and engagement.

Consider for a moment the relationship between those in poverty (Al-Fuqara) and those in debt (Al-Gharimeen): if donors or organisations were thinking holistically, funds could first be deployed to help people repay their debts, and once they are debt free then support them with funding to alleviate their poverty. This would increase the probability for individuals to escape chronic poverty, because such interventions would remove the burden of debt before alleviating the challenge of living costs.

In a recent visit to the Grand Mosque in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, I discussed with Shaikh Al Qassas the importance of using Zakat funds for challenging human trafficking. He was convinced that those classified as ‘fi-riqab’ could nowadays be considered as people who are trafficked and in forced labour or prostitution, and he was convinced that this was an Islamic priority which must be confronted.

The fourth category, reconciling hearts (Mu'allafah Quloobuhum) allows Zakat to be given to non-Muslims such as to “bring them closer to Islam”. Traditionally, this was interpreted as a channel by which to support converts, but some contemporary Islamic jurists and panels – for example the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America, have understood this to be intelligent lobby and policy engagement.