Without Zakaat: The Islamic Community of Prophet Muhammed is Deficient

WITH ALLAH’S NAME, THE MERCIFUL BENEFACTOR, THE MERCIFUL REDEEMER

Without Zakaat: The Islamic Community of Prophet Mohammed (ﺼﻠﻰ ﷲ ﻋﻠﻴﻪ ﻮ ﺴﻠﻢ) is Deficient

Documented by Jibril Abdul-Hafeez (جبريل عبدالحفيظ)

E-mail: NewAfrica2@aol.com or new_africa_now@yahoo.com

Friday, October 10 2008 / Yaum-ul-Jumu’ah, Shawaal 10, 1429

As Salaam ‘Alaykum: We thank Allah, we seek His help, we ask for His forgiveness, we believe and put our complete trust in Him, Mighty and Sublime is He. We witness that there is no G’d but Allah, He alone is without partners, and we witness that Muhammed is His Servant and Messenger, the prayers and peace be on him, on his descendants, his companions, and peace be on Allah’s Messengers (all of them), and what follows after this devout invocation.

In the Qur’an, 2:177, Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى) has said,

لَّيْسَ الْبِرَّ أَن تُوَلُّواْ وُجُوهَكُمْ قِبَلَ الْمَشْرِقِ وَالْمَغْرِبِ وَلَـكِنَّ الْبِرَّ مَنْ ءَامَنَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الاٌّخِرِ وَالْمَلَـئِكَةِ وَالْكِتَـبِ وَالنَّبِيِّينَ وَءَاتَى الْمَالَ عَلَى حُبِّهِ ذَوِى الْقُرْبَى وَالْيَتَـمَى وَالْمَسَـكِينَ وَابْنَ السَّبِيلِ وَالسَّآئِلِينَ وَفِي الرِّقَابِ وَأَقَامَ الصَّلَوةَ وَءَاتَى الزَّكَوةَ وَالْمُوفُونَ بِعَهْدِهِمْ إِذَا عَـهَدُواْ

It is pointed out here that mimicking rituals (لَّيْسَ الْبِرَّ أَن تُوَلُّواْ وُجُوهَكُمْ قِبَلَ الْمَشْرِقِ وَالْمَغْرِبِ), such as adopting somebody else’s voice, gestures, or appearances are not in itself righteousness. Praise be to Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى), first generation Muslims in America, do we hear what Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى) revealed to help us understand the meaning of righteousness? Far too often we go to extremes mimicking the perceived dress, copying talking points, and appearances of the righteous models in history or iconic figures in contemporary times as a prophylactic measure to protect us from being thought of or seen as being different from the revered sources that we are trying to imitate. In other words, the essence of this faith is implementation (ﷲ ﺃﻜﺒﺮ); such as…

The articles of faith, along with distributing from our possessions/wealth to humans who we are commissioned to be responsible for, and distributing the portion of the property which to due to the poor (وَءَاتَى الزَّكَوةَ) as a means of growth and purification as we work to build the Islamic Community of Prophet Muhammed (ﺼﻠﻰ ﷲ ﻋﻠﻴﻪ ﻮ ﺴﻠﻢ) in our lives.

There is a hadith regarding distributing wealth to others in spite of love for it (وَءَاتَى الْمَالَ عَلَى حُبِّهِ) that the Messenger of Allah (ﺼﻠﻰ ﷲ ﻋﻠﻴﻪ ﻮ ﺴﻠﻢ) has said,

أَفْضَلُ الصَّدَقةِ أَنْ تَصَدَّقَ وَأَنْتَ صَحِيحٌ شَحِيحٌ، تَأْمُلُ الْغِنَى وتَخْشَى الْفقْر

The best charity is that charity that you give away while still healthy and thrifty, hoping to get rich and fearing poverty. This implicit message speaks to those of us who like to put off doing charitable acts fearing that what we have is not enough to share with anyone else. The Poor-rate (الزَّكَوةَ) is an obligation on all adult Muslims in the Islamic Community of Prophet Muhammed (ﺼﻠﻰ ﷲ ﻋﻠﻴﻪ ﻮ ﺴﻠﻢ).

Those of us who are first generation Muslims in America may at times feel inadequate in consideration of the lack of resources that we think we should have to practice our faith in the way that we believe it should be practiced. At times the only thing that we have to call our own is a superficial identity that we are ready to sacrifice by assuming that our rituals have endowed us with some kind of mystical powers to transform us into a type of angelic being.

There is a noteworthy lesson is Prophet Ibrahim’s (ﻋﻠﻴﻪاﻠﺴﱠﻼﻢ) story in his devotion to Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى) to the point he was willing to sacrifice his flesh and blood offspring. Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى) intervened and showed him a lamb in a vision to sacrifice other than his beloved son. The lesson is that it is better to sacrifice our passive lamb-like nature; don’t be so willing to sacrifice a life (your natural identity).

It is very important the we pay close attention to what Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى) has said (لَّيْسَ الْبِرَّ أَن تُوَلُّواْ وُجُوهَكُمْ قِبَلَ الْمَشْرِقِ وَالْمَغْرِبِ) if we hope to understand the roots of the psycho-cultural warfare that is being waged against first generation Muslims in America and Muslims around the world as a campaign to condemn and ostracize the alleged practitioners of innovations (ﺒﺪﻋﺔ) that contradicts the established teachings of the pious predecessors. A new trend (ﺃﻠﺴﱠﻠﻔﻴﺔ) has been developing among the ranks of Muslims questioning the creed (ﻋﻗﻴﺪﺓ) of all Muslims and erecting a wall of separation between the estimated 1,400,000,000 people in the Islamic Community of Prophet Muhammed (ﺼﻠﻰ ﷲ ﻋﻠﻴﻪ ﻮ ﺴﻠﻢ) alleging that anyone who hasn’t bought into their way (ﻤﻧﻬﺎﺝ) is a heretic (ﺴﺒﺤﺎﻦﷲ). In the Qur’an, 4: 59, Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى) has said,

أَطِيعُواْ اللَّهَ وَأَطِيعُواْ الرَّسُولَ وَأُوْلِى الاٌّمْرِ مِنْكُمْ

Which means we don’t question Allah’s (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى) authority, or His Messenger’s (ﺼﻠﻰ ﷲ ﻋﻠﻴﻪ ﻮ ﺴﻠﻢ) authority or Allah’s Book, the ultimate authority over all Muslims now and forever, as the Messenger (ﺼﻠﻰ ﷲ ﻋﻠﻴﻪ ﻮ ﺴﻠﻢ) has said, "I am leaving you two things and you will never go astray as long as you cling to them -- they are the Book of Allah and my Sunnah."

أَقُولُ قَوْلِي هذَا وَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللهَ لِي وَلَكُم