JEDDAH, 15 October 2006 — The Charitable Warehouse, one of the leading philanthropic organizations in Jeddah, has embarked on a major project to collect and distribute Zakat Al-Fitr (a specific amount of food or money given in charity at the end of Ramadan) to the less well-off in the city.

Abdul Hay Al-Muhammadi, executive director of the Charitable Warehouse, said his organization had set out a plan to distribute Zakat Al-Fitr to more than 4,000 poor families. He said Makkah Governor Prince Abdul Majeed, who is the honorary chairman of the charity, has approved the project.

“We are implementing such a program for the first time,” Muhammadi said, adding that it is aimed at organizing the collection and distribution of Zakat Al-Fitr. The project has been widely welcomed by both Saudis and expatriates, saying it was essential for money to reach the poor and needy.

For the past several years, Zakat Al-Fitr in Jeddah and other parts of the Kingdom is collected and distributed in a haphazard manner without serving the purpose it has been set up for by Islam. On the last day of Ramadan, people purchase bags of rice from street vendors and give them to people posing as beggars. The so-called beggars sell the rice back to the vendors for whatever money they offer. “It was a joke,” said a longtime Jeddah resident.

“This (the new project) is a very good step,” said Jamal Mohiyuddin, a computer engineer. “All Muslims must support and encourage such efforts to collect and distribute Zakat Al-Fitr in a collective and organized manner,” he added.

Zakat Al-Fitr is a small amount that Muslims are obliged to pay as charity at the end of Ramadan. It is unanimously recognized by all schools of Islamic thought as a pious duty of every Muslim man or woman. Omar ibn Al-Khattab, one of the four Caliphs, said: “Allah’s Messenger enjoined the payment of one saa (about 2.25 kg) of dates or one saa of barley as Zakat Al-Fitr on every Muslim slave or free, male or female, young or old, and he ordered that it be paid before the people went out to offer the Eid prayer.”