Q. Is it permissible to pay one’s zakah to people who are Syeds. If not, what about a person whose mother is a Syed while his father is not? May I also ask whether it is permissible to pay zakah to one’s own brother or sister.
D. Hassan, Riyadh
A. The people who are described as Syed in certain parts of the Muslim world are supposed to be direct descendants of the Prophet through his daughter Fatimah. It is not necessary to call them by any title, but the title Syed is one of respect which is certainly owed to them. The ruling that they may not be zakah beneficiaries is well-known. However, they benefit from other sources which an Islamic state could have. This means that when they have been excluded from the benefit of zakah, other means were open to them which may not be open to other people. This source would ensure that no poor person among them would be left uncared for. However, these means can only be available in an Islamic state which conducts its affairs on the principles and regulations established by Islam. There are very few such states in the Muslim world today.
The question arises here that if such sources are not available today, are the descendants of the Prophet still to be excluded from zakah when they are poor and need help? In his invaluable work on zakah and all its aspects, Dr. Yussuf Al-Qaradawi discusses this issue at length and comes in favor of including descendants of the Prophet’s household in the beneficiaries of zakah. This is a view based on a solid argument and evidence. The point about excluding them from zakah is not to deprive them of a benefit, but to give them a better alternative of making ends meet. When that alternative is nonexistent, there can be no virtue in depriving them, because that would mean leaving them in poverty, uncared for. No community of believers may do that to the descendants of its Prophet.
Relatives to whom zakah may be paid are those whom we are not duty bound to support. Thus we may not pay zakah to our sons and daughters, or to our parents and grandparents, because supporting them is part of our Islamic obligations. A Muslim is not required, by way of duty, to support his brothers and sisters, when they are poor, even if he is much better off. Needless to say, he is strongly recommended to support them, but if he does not, he is not considered to have failed to meet his duty. Therefore, paying them one’s zakah is not only permissible, but strongly recommended. Zakah paid to a stranger is an act of charity, while zakah paid to a relative is both an act of charity and a kindness to kinsfolk.
Relations with in-laws
Q. How should a good Muslim man behave when he is with his sister-in-law. I have seen someone who is so familiar with his sister-in-law that their relationship raises many question marks. They even crack jokes which others find indecent. This causes much pain to the man’s wife, especially when such familiarities take place in the presence of others. Is there some Islamic guidance on this issue?
(Name and address withheld)
A. The Prophet was once asked about behavior with in-laws and his answer was given in one word: “an in-law relationship is death.” This means that if the wrong sort of relationship is allowed to develop between in-laws it could lead to death, or it is as serious as death. Hence, it is very important to maintain a proper relationship between men and women related through marriage.
This means that Islamic standards of morality and propriety should always be maintained between a man and his sister-in-law, and between a woman and her brother-in-law. The relationship should be based on mutual respect and dignified approach. Someone may say that he looks at his brother’s wife as his own sister, yet he speaks to her in a way which would send blushes to his sister’s face. That is certainly improper. When things are allowed to move in that direction, they could easily develop further and herald serious trouble. Therefore, it is most important that Muslim men and women know the limits beyond which they must not go. That is better for family life and purer for their hearts.
It is difficult to set limits which would apply in all situations. This type of relationship is very personal and varies from one person or one family to another. However, one should be very careful, and what one cannot do or say to his neighbor’s wife must not be done or said with his brother’s wife. If we apply this as a rule, we save ourselves too many problems. It is always better to err on the side of caution in such relations, because caution signifies decency and propriety.
Having said that, when a woman feels that her husband is being too familiar with his sister-in-law, she should alert him to the fact in a wise way. Her husband could easily dismiss the whole matter as jealousy on her part. There may be some element of jealousy, but moderate jealousy is healthy. Hence, she should persuade her husband that what he is doing may be misinterpreted by his brother and that could lead to trouble in his brother’s family.
When a relative’s behavior is unacceptable
Q. A relative of ours ran away from home and married a Hindu man. Although her own family boycotted her at the beginning, gradually relations were resumed until now they are at the normal level. Recently, her sister was to be married to a Muslim man, and we received invitations to attend the wedding. My father inquired whether the first daughter and her Hindu husband would be attending. On being told that they would, he decided not to attend. Is this the correct attitude? Should we maintain relations with the family of that woman who married the Hindu man?
A.A.S., Dammam
A. The marriage between a Muslim woman and a man who does not belong to the Islamic faith is invalid. Therefore, the marriage of your relative to the Hindu man is considered null and void. The relationship between them is not one of marriage, unless the man decided to convert to Islam at the time of the marriage and declared his belief in God’s oneness and in Muhammad as God’s messenger.
Whether the woman who committed this unacceptable relationship should be boycotted is debatable. If her family boycott her, she will continue to live with the man she has chosen and he will have more influence on her. However, if relationship is maintained, it may lead to a rethink which could, in time, bring about a rectification of the situation.
The woman should be advised by someone in the family whose opinion she values. That person should adopt a wise approach that would not alienate her. Gradually he or she should explain to her the difficulty of her situation from the Islamic point of view and try to bring her round to change the situation. That change could only come about if the man converts to Islam on the basis of conviction.
If this is the right approach, then we do not begin by boycotting a wedding in the family simply because she is attending. Rather, the wedding should be attended and the woman should be treated properly so that she knows that she cannot really afford to be separate from her family.
Zakah for education, etc.
Q.1. Is it acceptable to use one’s zakah for the purpose of the establishment of schools and libraries for the Muslim community in remote areas?
Q.2. How do we calculate zakah for the money one invests in the share market and investment bonds, etc. Should we calculate it on the basis of the purchase price or the present value?
Q.3. A person bought two plots of land, used the first for building a house and kept the other for re-sale at a later date. It does not produce anything. Is it liable to zakah?
K. Mahmood, Makkah
A.1. According to the verse which specifies the beneficiaries of zakah there is only one heading under which zakah may be used for community purposes, namely, “to further God’s cause”. Otherwise, the beneficiaries are people to whom zakah is paid, or purposes relating to such people. Past scholars defined this purpose as jihad and pilgrimage. Later scholars have been inclined to add other purposes, and education ranks among these. However, when it comes to the actual usage, problems may arise, such as whether zakah may be used to finance the building or the running cost of a school. A further complication in this regard is the fact that the school may be used by children who do not qualify to benefit by zakah. Hence, scholars prefer that unless the school is built specially for poor people, zakah should not be used to pay for its construction or running costs.
Having said that, there are many ways to use zakah funds in education, such as paying the fees of poor students, or buying their books, or paying for their meals at the school. What is needed for that is to arrive at some arrangement with a school to identify the poor schoolchildren and provide them with scholarships so that they can pay their fees, buy their books, etc. If any zakah-payer does that, his zakah will have been well spent.
A.2. Shares and stocks and other forms of investment are all liable to zakah. Scholars have expressed different views on how to pay zakah for them. The view I am more inclined to is to treat them as commercial commodities, which means that on one’s zakah date, one should find out their market value and pay zakah on the basis of that value at the rate of 2.5%. The other view treats them in the same way as profit gained without effort, which means that only the dividends paid on these shares is zakahable at the rate of 10%.
A.3. The land on which the reader built his house is not liable to zakah, nor is the house if he is using it for his family’s living. The land which is retained for re-sale is a commercial commodity, and it is liable to zakah. The liability is 2.5% of its market value on the zakah date. The original price is not considered in this case. Suppose that one paid 1,000 riyals for the land, and kept it for several years, during which it appreciates in value, the zakah payable each year is the market value that year. This means that after two years it may be worth 2,000, and after three years its value may rise to 5,000. Whatever the value that day is the amount on which one is liable to pay zakah.