By Rose Of Madinah

Did you know you can fulfil your zakat obligations personally by yourself to eligible ‘asnafs’ (zakat recipients)?

In general, the sunnah is to give your zakat to the needy in our community, particularly to our relatives, neighbours, those in our vicinity and then the needy overseas. In the event that you are unable to locate eligible asnaf, then trusted organisations and/or representatives may be employed to fulfil this divine trust but it is important to verify whether the organisations are able to fulfil the sharia and the sunnah before doing so.

You will find many ‘advertisements’ from many Islamic organisations to ‘pay’ your zakat to them. Plentiful organisations exist in our midst, ready to serve this cause of collecting and disbursing our zakat, but it is our responsibility to ensure that religious trust and knowledge of the sharia are upheld by these organisations. 

One of the important prerequisites for an Islamic organisation which collects and disburses zakat is that it must have a reasonable number of sharia-trained personnel/asatizah sitting on the board as well as the Zakat Division to make decisions on these critical and delicate matters.

IT IS A MAJOR RED FLAG IF NO ASATIZAH IS PRESENT ON AN ISLAMIC BOARD WHERE DECISIONS ON THE DEEN ARE MADE CONTINUOUSLY. 

It is also a worrisome trait if zakat money is used without any parameters and the definition of eligible asnaf keeps expanding in accordance with the administrative needs and fancies of the organisations. Sometimes, it may be wise to look for smaller established organisations led by learned personnel rather than bigger established organisations which then also tend to have bigger administrative expenses and less scrupulous uses of your zakat due to the ease of excess of funds.

Unfortunately, we live in trying times where just about anyone can give verdicts about Islam without knowledge, and where eloquence, money and status have become the benchmark for religious leadership in many organisations. And a postgraduate diploma in Islam definitely does not count as an Islamic scholarship in any regard. Thus, while we are looking to disburse our obligations for the pleasure of Allah ﷻ, do make an effort to ensure that your Ibadah is handled and disbursed accordingly with knowledge and trust.

Question: “Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh Ustaz, can we spread our zakat harta across 3 organisations as long as each organisation distributes the zakat to all asnafs? Jazakallah khair.”

Response: We can also distribute our zakat to only one asnaf, and this is an opinion within our madhab of Imam Shafie. Due to the circumstances that we are in and the difficulty of finding people within one’s reach, there is no harm in practising this opinion as it eases people to perform their religious obligation of zakat. 

It will be easier for us to find the poor and give them our zakat by ourselves so that we are certain that our zakat is given to the rightful people and not to organisations that may take the zakat money for their own use. This is because there is not much amanah (trust) in the times that we are living in, even among Muslims. Unless we know for sure that a particular organisation can be trusted with their disbursement of zakat based on sound interpretations of the asnaf in accordance with the fuqaha (jurists/ scholars).

Credits: Ust Anwar (I Ask Ustaz Q & A Network)

Reference: Taqriirat Sadidah

Do You Believe in One God
& Ready to [Re]start your Journey of Faith & Gratitude as a Muslim?