Five Pillars Of Islam: Zakat

Zakat

Zakat is the compulsory giving of a set proportion of one's wealth to charity. It is regarded as a type of worship and of self-purification. Zakat is the third Pillar of Islam.

Zakat does not refer to charitable gifts given out of kindness or generosity, but to the systematic giving of 2.5% of one's wealth each year to benefit the poor.

The benefits of Zakat, apart from helping the poor, are as follows:

• Obeying God

• Helping a person acknowledge that everything comes from God on loan and that we do not really own anything ourselves

- And since we cannot take anything with us when we die we need not cling to it

• Acknowledging that whether we are rich or poor is God's choice

- So we should help those he has chosen to make poor

• Learning self-discipline

• Freeing oneself from the love of possessions and greed

• Freeing oneself from the love of money

• Freeing oneself from love of oneself

• Behaving honestly

The 2.5% rate only applies to cash, gold and silver, and commercial items. There are other rates for farm and mining produce, and for animals.

Source: BBC - Five Pillars Of Islam: Zakat (charity).