Care for Others

[yasirma...@gmail.com]

Prayer and belief are not enough to make someone a good Muslim. Islam
is very concerned about looking after the welfare of poor people, and
the Qur'an specifies that all Muslims above the subsistence level must
pay up 2.5% of their annual savings to help people in need.

So once a year a Muslim works out 2.5% of everything they own, and
hands it to an approved organisation to use for charitable purposes.

Muslims call this Zakat, and it's the third pillar of Islam.

It's not a religious tax, as some people (not Muslims) say; it's an act
of worship, and it's something that pleases God: in fact in the Qur'an
you'll find that prayer and zakat are frequently spoken of together.

Zakat is an act of worship that goes directly to making the world a
better place for people who are up against it.

Paying Zakat also purifies the 97.5% of your wealth that remains, and
you can use this as you wish with clear heart. You can use some of it
for gifts to charity, but such spontaneous charity is called sadaqah,
not Zakat.