In response to a query made by the
Da‘wah Academy, a subsidiary of the Islamic University, the Council of
Islamic Ideology has declared tamlik a necessary condition for the
payment of Zakah. It held that spending Zakah in the publication
of literature for the propagation of the religion is not allowed. What
follows is the text of the news report about the matter:
CII has said in its verdict that the use of Zakah
in
publishing the translation of the Holy Qur’an and literature for
the propagation of Islam under the head of ‘fi sabilillah’ (in the
cause of Allah) is not allowed in the Islamic Shari‘ah. However,
it can be used to meet the expenses of an armed struggle and preaching
missions but only after the condition of tamlik is met. For example only
those of the warriors can take Zakah who are not liable to pay Zakah.
Giving Zakah to a governmental or non-governmental institution for
the publication of religious literature would kill its real purpose which
is the help of the poor and the needy. Use of Zakah for the above-mentioned
purpose, would open doors to its wrong use. Many of our national political
parties are religious. These parties contest election in order to serve
religion. They will spend Zakah on election for, to them, election
is also a source of hoisting the word of God. Therefore, under this head,
use of Zakah for these purposes should be prohibited. To provide
Zakah
fund
for such causes is a deviation from the real objectives of Islam.2
The report basically communicates two
points:
a) Direct transfer of Zakah fund
to a deserving person (tamlik) is necessary.
b) Zakah cannot be used in
preaching activities and in propagating religion by publishing literature.
In the opinion of this writer, both
these points are in contradiction with concept of Zakah presented
in the Holy Qur’an and Sunnah. Before the correct viewpoint
is explained in this regard, a word about the meaning and implication of
tamlik.
Literally, tamlik means ‘to
put somebody in possession of something’. Here, with reference to Zakah,
it means ‘the transfer of ownership of Zakah money to the real beneficiary’.
Our scholars regard it necessary to transfer the ownership of Zakah
fund
to a needy person. Therefore, the money of Zakah cannot be spent
for general welfare of the poor. For example, we cannot build hospitals
for the free treatment of the poor, cannot establish schools for their
children, and cannot provide their dwellings with fresh water. Likewise,
we cannot arrange for the burial of a poor person or pay loans outstanding
against him, for he cannot be made the owner of the money in person.
Those who consider tamlik compulsory
for the payment of Zakah forward the following arguments:
1. In the Qur’anic verse ’….‘إِنَّمَا
الصَّدَقَاتُ
لِلْفُقَرَاءِ
(Indeed, the alms are for the poor… (9:60), the preposition lam (لام)
is for tamlik.
2. The word Ita (giving) in ‘آتُوالزَّكَوةَ’
(pay Zakah) connotes the meaning of tamlik.
3. The Qur’an uses the word
Sadaqah
for
Zakah
and tasadduq (give in charity) originally implies
tamlik.
Amin Ahsan Islahi, a distinguished
religious scholar has effectively refuted these arguments in his book ‘Masa’alah-i-Tamlik’.
He holds that the concept of exclusive personal possession is grossly against
the Holy Qur’an and Sunnah. The rest of the article is actually
a summary of his critique of the above-mentioned viewpoint.
The gist of his response to the first
argument of the said school is as follows:
1. There is no clear instruction in
the Qur’an and Sunnah which says that tamlik is an
indivisible condition of Zakah.
2. The preposition la#m
(ل) in the word ‘للْفُقَرَاءِ’,
is not merely used for tamlik
in
the Holy Qur’an rather it connotes a host of meanings. Ibn Hisham,
a renowned grammarian of the Arabic language, has enumerated nearly twenty-two
usages of this preposition in his celebrated treatise ‘Mughni al-Labib’.
Some of them are:
a)
Istihqaq (استحقاق):
‘to merit, to deserve’, as in ‘أَلْحَمْدُ
لِلّهِ’ (All gratitude is due only
to Allah.)
b)
Ikhtisas (اختصاص):
‘to be exclusively for’, as in ‘أَلْجَنَّةُ
لِلْمُؤْمِنِيْنَ’
(Paradise is exclusively for the believers.)
c)
Milkiyyah (ملكيه):
‘to own something’, as in ‘لَهُ
مَا فِي
السَّمَوَاتِ
وَمَا فِي
الْأرْض’ (His is what is
found in the heaven and what is in the earth.)
d)
Tamlik (تمليك):
‘to make someone owner of something’, as in ‘وَهَبْتُ
لِذَيْدٍ
دِيُنَارًا’
(I made Zayd owner of a dinar.)
e)
‘Aqibah (عاقبه):
‘to be ultimately for’, as in ‘فَالْتَقَتْهُ
آلُ
فِرْعَوْنَ
لِيَكُوْنَ
لَهُمْ
عَدُوًّاوَّ
حُزْنًا’ (Then Pharaoh’s
household picked him up so that he may become their enemy and cause of grief for
them.) 3
It is worth mentioning that Ibn
Hisham has cited examples mostly from the Holy Qur’an. For tamlik
he
has cited a common expression of the Arabic language. Had the meaning of tamlik
been so pronounced in the lam used in ’…‘إِنَّمَا
الصَّدَقَاتُ
لِلْفُقَرَاءِ,
he would have quoted it as an example.
3. Muslim jurists and scholars do
not agree upon one meaning of this lam. The Hanafites take it for ‘aqibah
(consequence)
whereas the Malikites take it for tamlik.
4. The context of the verse does not
allow this sense of the preposition. Following is the context in which
the verse occurs:
وَمِنْهُمْ
مَنْ
يَلْمِزُكَ
فِي
الصَّدَقَاتِ
فَإِنْ
أُعْطُوا
مِنْهَا
رَضُوا
وَإِنْ لَمْ
يُعْطَوْا
مِنْهَا
إِذَا هُمْ
يَسْخَطُونَ
وَلَوْ
أَنَّهُمْ
رَضُوا مَا
آتَاهُمْ
اللَّهُ
وَرَسُولُهُ
وَقَالُوا
حَسْبُنَا
اللَّهُ
سَيُؤْتِينَا
اللَّهُ مِنْ
فَضْلِهِ
وَرَسُولُهُ
إِنَّا إِلَى
اللَّهِ
رَاغِبُونَ
إِنَّمَا
الصَّدَقَاتُ
لِلْفُقَرَاءِ
وَالْمَسَاكِينِ
وَالْعَامِلِينَ
عَلَيْهَا
وَالْمُؤَلَّفَةِ
قُلُوبُهُمْ
وَفِي
الرِّقَابِ
وَالْغَارِمِينَ
وَفِي
سَبِيلِ
اللَّهِ
وَاِبْنِ
السَّبِيلِ
فَرِيضَةً
مِنْ اللَّهِ
وَاللَّهُ
عَلِيمٌ
حَكِيمٌ (9: 58-60).
Among these hypocrites are people who level allegations
against you concerning the distribution of alms. If they are given according
to their wishes, they are pleased. If they are given nothing, they grow
resentful. It would have been better if they were satisfied with what God
and His Prophet have given them, and said: ‘God is sufficient for us. He
will provide for us from His own abundance and so will his Messenger. To
God we will submit.’ Alms shall be only for the poor and the destitute;
for those that are engaged in the management of alms and those whose hearts
are to be won in favour of Faith; for the freeing of slaves and debtors:
for the advancement of God’s cause; and for the traveler. That is a duty
enjoined by God. God is all-knowing and wise. (9:58-60)
To quote Amin Ahsan Islahi’s original
words:
These verses portray the picture of the hypocrites
whose response to the Prophet was conditional upon their self-interest.
If they were given what they wished, they would remain pleased otherwise
they would get annoyed and accuse the Prophet of partiality and favoritism.
And they would spread such depraved thoughts among Muslims. Now consider
what needs to be made clear. Does the situation need a statement making
transfer of Zakah fund directly to the recipients compulsory or
the explanation that alms are only meant for such and such people? Obviously,
the situation calls for the second. Therefore, interpreters of Qur’an
who
keep the context in mind while interpreting the Qur’an have reached
the same conclusion.4
5. The construction of the verse does
not accept the meaning of tamlik. In Islahi’s own words:
In the verse, it is obvious, there are eight
things mentioned as the lawful use of the Zakah fund. Of these,
four come under influence of the preposition lam and the remaining
four come under the preposition fi. We must construe something corresponding
with both the prepositions lam and fi. If we take lam
in
the meaning of tamlik, the first part of the sentence is separated
from the rest, as fi does not imply the meaning of tamlik
at
all. It only connotes the meaning of ‘usefulness’ or ‘service’ as it does
in the following narrative of the Holy Prophet: ‘مَاكَانَ
الْعَبْدُ
فِيْ عَوْنِ
اَخِيْه’ (until one remains
in the service of his brothers). Therefore, a compact and well-knit
structure of the verse, like this, demands that the both
lam and
fi
imply the meaning of ‘deserving’ or ‘benefiting from’ so that the verse
may be interpreted giving a intelligible set of meanings. To take the lam
in the sense of tamlik would not be possible without sacrificing
the eloquent expression of the Qur’an5.
As regards the second and third argument,
it is correct that
sometimes Ita# (ايتا)
and tas@adduq (تصدق)
connote
the sense of tamlik but the ultimate interpretation rests
on the context of the usage. It does not serve as a stance to prove that
the meaning of tamlik is inseparable in this
lam. Had it
be the case we would have taken this meaning in the
sentences ‘وَآتَيْنَاهُمْ
اْلكِتَاب’ (and
we gave him the book) and ‘وَآتَيْنَا
دَاوُدَ
زَبُوْرًا’ (and
we bestowed upon David Zabu#r), which of
course would be wrong. Likewise, the verse ‘فَاَصِّدَّقَ
وَاَكُنْ
مِّنَ
الصَّالِحِيْنَ’
(so I would give in charity and be among the pious ones)
means ‘I would
spend in the way of Allah and would spend my money for the benefit of the
poor’. It does not mean at all that I would transfer money in the possession
of the poor.
Islahi elucidates this aspect
in the following words:
The meaning of tamlik is not manifest
in the words ita and tasadduq. Therefore, it cannot be presented
as the final proof in favour of the concept of tamlik. The only
thing these words represent is giving or spending. It can be done by transferring
the ownership of the money to a poor or spending it for the betterment
of the poor community. Such insistence in the provision of tamlik makes
the payment of Zakah impossible, where one cannot spend it on burial
rites of a dead and pay back a loan on his behalf. I believe that this
is a baseless and self-devised idea which has no roots in the Qur’an
and
Sunnah.6
The above analysis makes it clear that
tamlik
is not a condition for the payment of Zakah. It can be spent
for the benefit of the needy. Therefore, we can build hospitals, establish
schools and make roads and inns using the alms. Similarly, it can also
be spent on the publication of propagating material and in preaching.
|