وَٱلَّذِينَ هُمْ لِلزَّكَوٰةِ فَٰعِلُونَ
5:56; 9:71.
Commentary:
This verse refers to the third rung of the spiritual ladder. The true believers not only turn to God with utmost humility of the heart and avoid all sorts of vanities and trivialities but actually engage themselves in pursuits that purify them, such as the spending of their valuable time and hard-earned money and employing all the natural capacities and abilities with which God has endowed them, in the cause of truth. They are prepared to undergo all manner of sacrifice. In v. 4 above, the believers are mentioned as avoiding vain and useless things which is at best a negative virtue, and a negative virtue or good is not of a very high order. The present verse, however, points to a positive virtue which consists in the doing of good that should purify oneself and also benefit others and consists in giving money, which one has earned with the sweat of one’s brow, in the way of God. This indeed is a great positive virtue. In fact, Islam regards the share of the poor in the wealth of the rich as the inalienable right of the former and when a rich man discharges the debt that he owes to the poor by paying the Zakah, he does no favour to anybody. He only gives what is due from him. The Holy Prophet is reported to have said: "Let no one imagine that his wealth or standing or power is the result merely of his own efforts or enterprise. That is not so. Your power and your position and your wealth are all earned through the poor" (Tirmidhi, Abwabuz-Zuhd).
The object of Zakah is not only to provide means for the relief of the distressed or for the promotion of the welfare of the economically less favoured sections of the community, but it is also to discourage the hoarding of money and commodities and, thus to ensure a brisk circulation of both, resulting in healthy economic adjustments.
5:56; 9:71.
The object of Zakat is not only to provide means for the relief of the distressed, or for the promotion of the welfare of the economically less favoured sections of the community, but also to discourage the hoarding of money and commodities and thus to ensure a brisk circulation of both, resulting in healthy economic adjustments.