Is Zakat Charity or a Sacred Right?

, come on. Lord,.

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Alhamdulillah. forch.

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Muslim.

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For.

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Wasam.

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For.

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Allah Subhanahu Waaala. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us in describing his truly believing servants, those from amongst his servants that will inherit the paradise. And not just any part of the paradise but they will inherit the highest levels of paradise. El ferdos he tells us subhanahu wa ta'ala describing them or we should say describing one of their most critical components and hallmarks. He says subhanahu waala and those who are ever dutiful in giving their zaka the zakiah of their wealth. He elaborates on this elsewhere in which he describes his believing servants. He describes elus. He describes those whom their hearts have been chosen and prepared by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to be filled with his revelation and his names and attributes and to be filled with knowledge of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. He says in their description and those whom in their wealth is a known and set a known and set right that belongs to those who ask and that belongs to those who are in desperate need. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, notice the wording here. He says, notice the wording that he uses. He says, "And those whom in their wealth exists a right, a portion of their wealth, that is a right that belongs to those who are less privileged to those who are impoverished and those who are needy and are asking. This a known set right. This is what we know as zak. It is a known and set right that is contained within the wealthy individual's property and wealth. But it belongs to those who are impoverished. It belongs to those who are in need, those who are in a position to ask others for aid and help and financial assistance. And so this gives us a very interesting view of Zak. It gives us Zak in almost a new light from a different angle. And that is that when the person gives zak, he is actually handing over what never belonged to him in the first place. This is a right that Allah mentions belongs to those who are impoverished. It is a right that is contained within his wealth that belongs to those who are in need. And so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions that this known and set right belongs to those individuals who are in need of it. And when a person accepts Islam, when a person stands before Allah as a servant and a follower of Muhammad sallall.aii alaihi wasallam. He accepts and understands that he is merely the custodian of said wealth. That this portion of his earnings, though they are a result of his earnings, they are ultimately all the consequences of Allah's grace and mercy and giving. and that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has allowed us the majority of our wealth but he has set aside 2.5% a very very small percentage that will not harm the wealthy but will be an immense benefit and of consequence to those who do not have and so it is a balance and Allah has said to the wealthy, "This is yours and it belongs to you. I hereby grant you this being that you have earned it in a hal way. But this portion right here belongs to me. And I have made you its custodian and its caretaker. And that you are to deliver it to eight types of individuals whom I have designated be recipients of this zaka. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has made that a pillar of Islam. And he has made it one of the first things that any people will learn about Islam. And Bkari Muslim Abdullahb he narrates that when the prophet Sam sent Mu Jabal to Yemen as his representative and a caller to Islam and judge amongst the people of Yemen. He told him.

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The prophet sallall.aii Wasam when he sent Mu to Yemen, he said when you arrive in Yemen, you will encounter a people there that are a people of the book, predominantly Christian, but there were some pockets of Jews there as well. And so the first thing you are to call them to, the first thing you are to introduce them to of my message is that they worship Allah alone without any partners.

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He said, "And if they come to accept that, then inform them that Allah whom they have conceded is to be worshiped alone without any partners. Inform them that Allah has obligated upon them five daily prayers in every day and night of theirs.

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He said, "And if they come to accept this and they come to practice prayer, then inform them that Allah has obligated upon them a percentage of the wealth of their wealthy, a charity that will be taken from their wealthy and distributed back amongst their poor. Now notice the very critical wording here that the prophet sallall.aii wasallam cites. He says inform them that Allah has obligated upon them. Who is them? The people of Yemen. the people that he's going to people he's been sent to by the prophet sallall.aii wasallam inform them that Allah has obligated upon them a charity to be taken from their wealthy and distributed back upon their poor. The scholars have taken from this narration, this wording and other narrations that zaka is not only to be collected in a place but it is to be distributed in the place in which it was collected because zakia has many many many benefits. and a person receiving a check or a person receiving some money. That is only one of its many multiaceted benefits. One of the most important aspects and angles of zaka is that it strengthens the bonds and closes the chasm and gaps between the wealthy and the poor. Throughout human history, there has always existed a tension and a lovehate relationship between the wealthy and the poor. The poor need the wealthy. And the wealthy, they need the poor, whether they accept that or not. And the poor hate that they need the wealthy. And the wealthy hate that they need the poor. But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has set us all up as he has said that he subhanahu wa ta'ala has raised some amongst us in levels above others in order for the test that is this world to be adequate to judge a person's true true person. And so there is always a possible there is always a possible vendetta or possible discomfort. And there is also always this kind of dislike that bubbles underneath the surface between the poor and the rich. And so one of the benefits, one of the most critical and immense benefits of zak is that it helps to quell that that dislike. It helps to quell that when the wealthy give enough to the poor to take care of them. And the wealthy give enough to the poor to make them productive in society in their society. And where the poor receive enough to make them thankful to the wealthy. And this is all part of a functioning society. If we have very very very wealthy people who don't look twice at the poor, this chasm will continue to grow between them until it becomes combustible. And so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has made it that the wealthy must give the poor and the poor must be grateful to the wealthy in order that they all be brothers. And so this is a timeless law. This is a timeless legislation of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that the wealthy in any given place or society are always responsible for taking care of the poor in that society here in America right here. If the wealthy amongst us do not take care of the poor and the wealthy amongst us ship their zaka off to some other place in the world and then they will say well you know hey the government takes care of the poor here in America so we don't really need to do that and so we're okay with the government quote unquote taking care of our brothers and sisters who are our brothers and sisters. BUT THEN WE SHIP OUR zak off somewhere else. How exactly are we going to grow those bonds of brotherhood between the wealthy and the poor amongst us? Or is our time too advanced and too complex for these kinds of simple these kinds of simple solutions? Of course not. This is the law of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. The sunnah of the prophet Sam. They are timeless. They are not bound by any geographic. These laws of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala are beneficial and we are the first to reap the benefits of these of these laws and these rules and regulations of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala these obligations and so it is absolutely critical that we take care of our poor. Sometimes I have heard some of the most absurd arguments with respect to people discussing this issue. People that claim that there's no poor people in America or for instance the government will take care of the poor or we have welfare here in America or all these other excuses. This money does not belong to you. This money that is zaka in your wealth, it never belonged to you. Never. It was never part of that which was okay for you to take. It always belonged to the poor. And it belonged to your poor brother and sister that lives right next door. And if he doesn't live right next door, then two doors down and so forth. And if he doesn't if there is hypothetically not a single poor person in your whole city than the next poor person in the closest city to you. This is how zaka works. You don't make your own rules for this kind of money. It is something that you are merely a custodian of. And it is absolutely critical for us to go back to those original original obligations and really start back at the fundamentals again and grow our roots nice and strong again. and that we start to give our zakat properly to who it belongs to. And if a person is unable to give it to who he belongs to, then he will give it to someone who will make sure that it arrives in the hands of those who are needy, those who are impoverished, those to whom it belongs.

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Alhamdulillah.

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Right after the salah is over here in Jum. We're asking you to stay for just five minutes as we make a collection for the zaka of the masjid to make sure that we have that fund for the entirety of the year to be able to give anyone who is in need that comes to our doors. This is something that is not just good for you to do. This is your responsibility. This is the obligation upon you by Allah Subhanahu Waaala. This is our responsibility. And so we'd ask anyone that is here, unless you have some dire emergency to tend to, even if you are not planning to give anything right now, at least stay seated. remain with us because once people start leaving then the other one leaves and then the next one leaves and then we're standing here talking to ourselves. Please remain here for just five extra minutes and allow us to make a collection for zaka and also for the expenditures of Ramadan. this operation here that we all enjoy. It costs money just anything else and we need to make a collection for that as well inshallah which we will explain in more detail once the salah is over. Allah.

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Whom All sam. Alhamdulillah.

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Call it. Allah.

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Stand shouldertosh shoulder. Close all of the gaps. As we mentioned, after the salah, we'll be making a collection for zaka. We'll be making a collection for zaka and also for the expenditures for the month. When you give, you will designate what of your money that you want to or your donation you want to be allotted to each. Please, even if you're not giving, the least you can give or donate is five minutes of your time to remain seated in order that we are able to get this done. Shouldn't take more than about four or five minutes and then we'll let you go inshallah. Alhamdulillah.

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Canister.

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Amen. for.

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Canada. All Allah holy men Allah alone. Oh, I alone.

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Alhamdulillah.

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Fore! Foreign! Foreign! Holy. Amen. Allah.

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About me. Allah Allah.

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Thou alone. Allah bell.

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Allah.

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As we mentioned, inshallah just five minutes we will listen to our president here a few words and then we'll start making our collection inshallah. Just remain seated unless you have an emergency and I'm going to check brothers and sisters. I just want to explain a couple of things before we help sheh increase you know to to collect the funds inshallah. So the there are two reasons why we are collecting the funds today. First one is zakat zakat that is obligatory to everybody right that's 2 and a half% of the money that we have that is does not belong to us. it needs to be returned to the needy people to fulfill that request. The second part is the expenses of the Ramadan. We do not have we we always collect the money to take care of those things but because of the interest of time we decided to combine the two. The form that we have today is pledge forms. They have options for both of them. So you can decide which one how much of zakat is due to you due from you and the second is how much you want to donate for the masid for the Ramadan expenses which includes the the activities throughout the the Ramadan and the on the day of Eid we have we offer a breakfast and we need some money for that also. So without any further delay I would to ask she.

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And needs a.

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Would to say while we do not turn away anybody that comes in requesting for help the pro the amount of money that we have is proportional to how much we can do give to those people who come in through the door. So while we are not turning away anybody, we just can be more generous if you are helping us to and that is something that key is in your hand. You can help us make it more generous so when people come in they are we are able to fulfill their needs in a better way inshallah. Right? So if the zak fund is low, you got to come in and go through a rigomear round, fill out an application and get 50 bucks. Who wants that? We want to be able to give out some handsome checks to our needy brothers and sisters. Make sure that they are taken care of. Let's go ahead and start with 10,000. Who has $10,000 that's burning a hole in his pocket? They got to get rid of it. We have one over here. This is Dr.'s son. $10,000. Who's going to follow suit? 10,000. We have here 10,000 as well. Dr. So, we've got we need we need 10,000 here. We have Dr. 10,000 here as well. Mashallah. 10,000. Let's take a few more 10,000s. I know that's that's, you know, that's peanuts for some of us. Who has $10,000 that they need to get rid of before they pass away? If you die and it's with you, that might be a problem because that's somebody else's money. Who has $10,000 that belongs to the poor here amongst us? 10,000 inshallah. 10,000. 10,000. I will pledge.

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Say amen. Amen.

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For the sake of time, let's move to 5,000. That is half. We should see just a plethora of hands just shooting up all over the place. Here we have Dr. Mashallah. Here we have Dr. Usama. He's not a doctor, but I'll call him a doctor. You could be a doctor for a day. Over here, Ib Abu in the green back here. Mashallah. He's about 7 foot tall. You can't miss him right there. 5,000. 5,000. Who else? $5,000. We have here $5,000. $5,000. $5,000 of zak for thee. Here's brother Muhammad with his shade. He has a car that picks him up all by itself. It's the creepiest thing you could ever see. $5,000 inshallah. 5,000. We have $5,000. $5,000. And of course, this doesn't close it off if you want to pledge it later or do it in private, but this is the place to do this. This is a private thing. It's wedge for you to do it privately so people will come out of their shells. So, just one reminder, this is the money you not you don't have to pay all of it today. You can make the payment plans. So, it's the what we are asking for is only $400 a month, right?

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Just want you to remember this is something that you make the pledge inshallah Allah will make it easy for you to deliver. So only once a month you can pay4 $400 and that fulfills the $5,000 pledge inshallah. We want to make sure we never have to turn away anyone due to a low budget ever. Ever. We never want to turn anyone away. We want to benefit everyone. Let's take it down to $2,000. $2,000 for the whole year. 25 over here. 25. Here we have brother Nadim 3,000.

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2,000? Here we have.

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Brother over here. 2,000. Thank you. 2,000 $2,000 for zak or for the expenditures for Ramadan. $2,000 $2,000. We'll do $1,000. That's for the whole year. this is we're getting into my bracket now of the kind of here we have Abu Ali Mashallah 1000 over here Abu Ali. And I know that a lot of us divide up our zakah. Some send some home to their country, some keep it here. So it's good to.

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$1,000. Who else has any pledge? Now we'll take it to five and as well here. $500. $500 will make this for the expenditures for the masid. Here we have 500. 500 here in the back. Raise your hand nice and tall. Be very proud. You know the prophet sallall.aii Wasam tells us that Allah despises that a person walk boastfully in all affairs except in the time of making a shan cry making a shaitan weep. So this is a time to really rub his nose in it. $500. We will we have 500 over here as well. 500 raise your hand. 500 500 $500 500 for me as well. I'll do 500. Mashallah. 500. I'm tapped out for the month. I had to I had to 500. We have brother Usama over here. We have 500 in the snap snapback hat. Okay. The snap cap. Well, it's a snapback. I I don't know what you guys call it. These youngsters. I used to be one young one one day five 500 anymore inshallah this is not closed off you can come up take a slip fill it out just make sure that you fulfill your pledge inshallah this is your responsibility this is your opportunity we've this is our last for Ramadan we'll see you next week I have a couple of pledges that are silent pledges one is $5,000 mashallah my shelters for that for the the fundraising we are doing today. There was another one silent. That's another $1,000. And there's another one that's unknown. So, alhamdulillah, we have several silent pledges. There's a four 4,000. There's another 4,000 pledge that is silent. So, brother and sisters, I understand, I appreciate, and I tremendously encourage the silent pledges also. So just I have a couple of quick announcements the the 27th plan inshallah we'll have that available tonight the the that night between the Sunday and Monday night that will be the 27th and we'll spend the night here inshallah eid prayers are going to be on at 7:30 and 9 a.m. inshallah on the day of Eid, brother.

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Eid is going to be at at 7:30 a.m. and 900 a.m. The first one is going to be led by Sheh Matik. The second one is going to be by Imam Ali. Just a quick reminder and it's to make it easier for everyone. If you look around you in the front here behind me, you see this picture here and you see it everywhere around the masjid. It's a scan code with your phone. You you can scan it. It will help you pay the donation and it also has information how to donate via zel or any other way. So look at look for these signs and use them for donation. Make sure if you make any donation in the notes field, you write down what you want it to be spent for so we can apply it accordingly.

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Least he tells us which way he wants it.

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What?

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Thank you. I know it's a last minute.

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Friday the 3rd 20 30 I know I know I know I know so so they'll be cleaning you know we're going to be using that day right.