Zakah: Deduction by the state on
savings accounts
Q720 :In Pakistan, government deducts zakah directly
from bank deposits of Sunni Muslims. Those who are Shi'a or Ismailis
are exempt from this provided they submit a statement signed under oath
and witnessed by two persons of their religious affiliations. Is our
government allowed by Islamic law to make this deduction? Is it
permissible for any Sunni Muslim to submit the required declaration
that he belongs to another group because he has relatives who qualify
as beneficiaries of zakah and he wants to make sure that this zakah is
properly spent.
A720 : Under the Islamic system, it is the
government which is required to administer the collection and
distribution of zakah. A zakah department should be established in the
government of any Muslim country for collecting zakah and distributing
it to its beneficiaries. This department is self-financing, because
salaries of its employees can be paid directly from zakah funds. Had
such a department been operating in Muslim countries for the past 30 or
50 years, we should not have suffered the sort of poverty which many
Muslims areas suffer today. The answer to your first question is,
therefore, that the government is not merely allowed but required to
take zakah from people and spend it as Allah has specified its methods
of spending. I should point out that this option should not be limited
to bank savings. It should be expanded to ensure that every Muslim in
the country pays his or her zakah to the zakah department and also to
make sure that those who qualify for zakah benefit actually get the
payments to which they are entitled. It is wrong to operate a zakah
collection and distribution agency and limit its revenue to one or two
sources of zakah. That will create a bad example of how zakah operates
in practice. I realize that the task is enormous, but every Muslim
government which wants to operate this system can spread its full
implementation over a period of time and it will soon realize the
benefits of establishing this system in the actual betterment of the
fortunes of the lowest earning section of its population. I appreciate
the motives of any person who has poor relatives and who wants to pay
zakah to them. This is a noble motive which should be encouraged.
However, I cannot accept the method suggested to achieve this. If
anyone makes a false statement, whether under oath or not, he lies.
This is forbidden in Islam. We cannot tell lies except in specific,
well known situations. This is not one of them. What should be done,
instead, is for depositors of such savings to bring pressure to bear on
the government to allow them to make a similar statement to the effect
that they pay their zakah to those relatives. How this should be
formulated is a matter which the government can decide.
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News - Jeddah )