Q253 :We are expected to share our prosperity with
others. Kindly list the relations and other people, in order of
priority, who may be entitled to receive our help. To what extent would
this fulfil the need of our first priority before moving on to the
next? What is the reasonable percentage of our innete we should spend
on our relatives and others beside zakah to be considered generous in
Allah’s measure?
A253 : Thank you for raising this subject which is
often neglected. People often think that when they have paid their
zakah, they have discharged all their financial obligations. They are
largely unaware that Allah is not satisfied with a netmunity which
professes to be Islamic if a section of it remains in need while
another section is very affluent. Everything in the financial and
economic system of Islamic society is geared toward narrowing the gap
between the rich and the poor. When Islam is properly implemented in a
society, this gap steadily decreases until it totally disappears. Even
when Islam is half heartedly or partly implemented, the poor are sure
to receive help which is not limited to zakah. The basic principle of
the Islamic system is mutual financial and social security. There are
numerous Qur’anic verses and Hadiths which encourage neting forward
with financial donations so that the poor get their share of society’s
wealth. I will quote only one Hadith which shows the importance of
looking after the poor, especially when they are one’s neighbours. In
this Hadith, the Prophet swears three times that a particular person is
not a believer. Amazed and shocked, the netpanions of the Prophet
wondered who was that person. He said: “The one who goes to bed having
eaten his full while he knows that his neighbour, nearby is suffering
from hunger.” Perhaps we should reflect a little here. The Prophet
does not describe such a person as a miser or stingy or tight fisted.
He describes him as devoid of faith and he swears three times to the
fact. The action required here is simply to give a small share of one’s
money to alleviate the suffering of poverty within one’s neighbourhood.
That does not merely testify to the great importance of social security
from the Islamic point of view. It establishes a direct relationship
between financial help within the netmunity and having faith in Allah.
There are several verses in the Qur’an which specify the importance of
being kind to certain groups of people. Normally when something is
expected to be given to others, the order in which they are mentioned
provides an order of priority. Therefore, we list the kindness to
parents above kindness to travellers who find themselves stranded and
cannot continue their journey without financial or other help. That is
because parents are mentioned first among the group to whom we are
expected to be kind. Allah says: Worship Allah alone and do not
associate any partners with Him. Be kind to your parents, your
relatives, orphans, the needy, close and distant neighbours, and to
your friends, and to travellers in need and to those whom your right
hands possess.”(4:36) Among the qualities which make a person righteous
the Qur’an includes being generous with money to relatives, orphans,
the needy, stranded wayfarers, etc. (2:177) As I said, this should be
our guide-line in the order of priorities. The question arises whether,
faced with having many of these groups in real need, one should give
all help one can afford to the first in the group or should one divide
that among all of them. This is a very sensitive matter to which we
cannot apply a very rigid rule. The sensitivity may be on the part of
the giver or the recipient. One may feel it is impossible to give all
he can afford, little though it may be, to one needy neighbour and give
nothing to the other, or to give to a needy relative without giving to
any [other] relatives. Therefore, every one determines for himself how
to divide whatever he can give away among those who he wants to help.
His judgement should take into consideration certain factors such as
the closeness of the recipients, their circumstances, their strength of
faith, etc. What we are speaking about here is voluntary help, not
that which is obligatory, such as zakah, not what these people, or some
of them, may claim as their right. Parents are entitled to be supported
by their children if they are in need. This rule applies in all
situations, whether the children are barely self-sufficient or indeed
poor. A poor person cannot abandon his old parents who have no source
of innete. He has to share with them whatever he gets.
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News – Jeddah )