Zakah
Zakah (almsgiving)
Zakah (almsgiving) is one of the five pillars of Islam, along with the Shahadah (testimony of faith), Salah (prayer), Sawm (fasting) and Hajj (pilgrimage).
Allah commands the paying of Zakah many times in The Quran as well as mentioning the reward of doing so:
“Establish prayer, and pay Zakah. Whatever good you send forth for yourselves, you will ˹certainly˺ find ˹its reward˺ with Allah. Surely Allah is All-Seeing of what you do”. (The Quran 2:110)
The payment of Zakah is obligatory for every sane adult who owns wealth over a certain amount (Nisaab) and they must pay 2.5% of that wealth as Zakah once every Islamic year as long as the Nisaab is met. Nisaab for gold as our Prophet (peace be upon him) has informed us (and for currencies made from gold) is 20 mithqaalan, a measure which is equivalent to 85 grams of pure gold (1 mithqaal = 4.25 grams). It becomes incumbent upon anyone who owns such an amount in any form to pay zakat on it in the amount of 2.5%. The nisaab for silver is roughly equivalent to 595 grams of silver.
Example (Values correct as of 25/01/2024)
You are required to assess what you have had for the last year based on the lesser of the two values above.
Therefore if you have more than £345.10 you must pay 2.5% zakah. It is well known that there is a noticeable disparity between the value of nisaab for gold and that of silver in our times. The best and most conservative for a poor person is to assess how many pounds he/she has that have been in his/her possession for a complete lunar year (Hijri, which is 354 days). If the amount reaches the value of nisaab for silver or more, then he/she should pay from it for every £1,000, £25 (i.e., 2.5%) to be spent in the prescribed beneficiaries as specified by shari’ah,
Muhammadi Masjid can now collect your Zakah and distribute it to those less fortunate Muslims both within our community and abroad, ensuring the authenticity of the beneficiaries as outlined in The Quran.