[Terinalo]

Aslamo Alikum,

Dear All,

Below are few points about Zakat that I have heard from various Islamic scholars. These are worth reading.

Some people think, Zakat is a religious tax, this is wrong idea. The Arabic word for Tax is Jaziah.

Zakat means purity. Zakat purifies our wealth.

Sometimes, no matter how much we try to earn wealth in halal ways, it gets impure with some haram stuff, so when we pay Zakat, Allah (swt) purifies our wealth.

Just an example, suppose, there is a milkman, he always sell 100% pure milk but because of some dire need, like there is so much heat, he has to put ice in the milk to keep it fresh and stop it from deteriorating. So although, he did this for some valid reason but it is haram because now the milk is not 100% pure, so his halal earnings are spoiled with haram earnings, if he will pay Zakat from his earnings, then Allah (swt) will purify his halal earnings from his haram earnings.

In short, even your halal earnings are not 100% halal and you need Allah (swt) to make it halal for you and Zakat does this.

So that’s the idea of Zakat.