Charity as spoken by our scholarly circles

[Basma]

Salam dear all. 

My husband and I attend our community Masjid very regularly.  It’s a very nice place with good people and we have made several friends.  The place is also children-friendly so we don’t need to keep our kids with baby sitters while we go to attend the Masjid.
 
The only problem is with the quality of lectures delivered by some of our teachers who run the Masjid.  Sometimes the problem is with the kind of things they say picking strange hadiths that are clearly unauthentic.  That we have learned to ignore.  At other times problem arises when they emphasize on charity in a way that is not plausible or practical for many families.  For them charity means generously (or thoughtlessly to be more exact) sharing your money with others implying donations.  When our ulemas talk on Taqwa, their emphasis is largely on charity to give, give and give like we have no other financial responsibilities or like we are not living in the 21st century when the cost of living keeps sky rocketing without hitting the ceiling. Please don’t think me to be stingy.  La hawla wa la quwwata illa Billah.  We know how important zakah (or Sadaqa) is.  But the kind of time we are living in, we need to plan charity just as we plan other finances.  The kind of things our scholars say on charity to impress us to give more and more, if followed diligently we could soon run short of finances.  Secondly, they highlight to give $25 for every $1,000 you have in your savings.  But they don’t take into consideration the nature of your savings, whether it’s coming from regular monthly income through work or business or investment yield, or it is simply a lumpsum which isn’t accruing any yield from any source at all.  If your savings are a lumpsum for rainy days and other emergencies not being reimbursed by regular income savings and you keep calculating at $25 for every $1,000, after some years you could be left with very little for your own emergency use. Those scholars and imams of ours who persistently press for donations won’t come to the rescue of such families who are left broke because they followed impractical advise.  Can we thus ignore their calculations and focus on our own calculation keeping in mind our financial condition and nature of income?

[Heba E. Husseyn]

Walaikum as-Salam

O yeah, I absolutely understand and concur.  Unfortunately their approach on charity is very motivated and thus their lectures are similarly motivated too.  You don’t have to blindly do as they say.  That could lead to some serious financial snags for some folk or many.  First of all, one requires to maintain a rational balance while spending on charity.  Allah Almighty has made this very clear.

“Make not your hand tied (like a niggard's) to your neck, nor stretch it forth to its utmost reach, so that you become blameworthy and destitute.”  17:29 Al-Isra.

Importance of Taqwa V.2:177 is summarised very comprehensively.  There are many other Verses too on charity in the Noble Quran.  Charity is surely one of the 5 pillars a Muslim requires.  However, Allah Almighty has never anywhere in His Final Message mentioned the amounts or percentages to be given as a benchmark for charity or charitable calculations.  That has to be done by every individual / family in accordance to their circumstances.  I would certainly add  that just because Allah Almighty has given us the freedom to decide the amount of charity (zakah or sadaqa) on our own, it should not be taken as an excuse to underspend or not spend at all.  Some people do that which is very wrong, unless of course one is in the category of a zakah recipient.   I am sure you and your husband are conscientious who, as you stated, like to spend albeit in accordance with your own financial situation.  That’s fine.  It’s exactly how my husband and I plan our yearly charity as well.  Pleases know, we are obligated to spend in charity for the needy what we can comfortably afford without denying to our own families, and also without becoming financially self-centered (or selfish in plain terms).   We are under no obligation to use the figure 2.5% randomly, if that seems unsuitable or pressures our finances.  Neither are we obligated to go ditto according to what our folks at the Masjid say.  Most of them, themselves, seldom give the way they talk. 

For a better and more complete understanding please read the following MV posts on Zakah:

-  Zakah as given in the Noble Quran
-  Is the amount of Zakah mentioned in the Quran

Moreover, if you go through our guestbook, you will find other Q&A on this topic which may further clarify the matter. 

[Yasmina Nawal]

That's why our scholar circles never quote verse 17:29.

Some of them say that if you want someone outside your family to inherit most of your assets, then instead of putting in your will which would violate the Quran law on this issue, you can give away to them little by little throughout your lifetime cause it’s your money as long as you are alive and you can give to anyone you please.  They actually mean donations to them.  Other than this idea being very impractical, doesn’t it violate the Quran just as much?  God Almighty says in the Quran that you must not will away too much through a bequest to others which might hurt your legal heirs (ref.v.4:12 last line).  If you finish giving away much of your assets to outsiders in your lifetime, it means the same thing.  By the time you pass away, your legal heirs will find they hardly have anything to inherit cause so much has been given away to others already.


“And if a man or a woman have a distant heir (having left neither parent nor child), and he (or she) have a brother or a sister (only on the mother's side) then to each of them twain (the brother and the sister) the sixth, and if they be more than two, then they shall be sharers in the third, after any legacy that may have been bequeathed or debt (contracted) not injuring (the heirs by willing away more than a third of the heritage) hath been paid. A commandment from Allah. Allah is Knower, Indulgent.” Verse 4:12.

[Ruhi_Rose]

@  Yasmina Nawal, absolutely right.  A sister teacher I know also said the same .. to give away your money in your lifetime to whoever you wish even if they are not of your family.  She meant donations too.  Completely wrong suggestion having no compatibility with Quranic instructions.   Thanks for quoting V.4:12.

As-Salam Alaykum.

[Basma]

Read the posts and links with interest.  Much thanks sisters for this big help.