Ramadan 2015 – Day 14

smilla Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala rasulillah while early he was a heavy woman, what about

the first few verses of surah number describe a very common phenomenon in the Quran where Allah praises the believers and says, Allah Deena up Muna salata Will you tune as those who pray and give Zakat and today's hautala is going to be about Zika as is our custom every single year. We talk about very briefly, a reminder to ourselves about the importance of Zika and how we calculate Zika and today, inshallah huhtala. go over some of the more important rulings and a handout is also being distributed that will inshallah summarize the main filk rulings of zecca. Realize My dear brothers and sisters that zecca is one of the fundamental pillars of our religion, Allah subhanho wa Taala

begins the Quran by describing the believers as those who believe in the hype and they establish the salah, and they give zakah and in over 70 verses in the Quran, Allah describes the believers as those who give Zakat while the Dena homeless aka Tifa, even those that are active fine in giving Zakah when Allah speaks about non Muslims converting to Islam, Allah says the sign of them converting to Islam is for in taboo. accommo salata atta was Zakat, if they repent from worshipping false gods, and they pray and they give zeca so Allah made Zakat, a necessary requirement for being a Muslim. And in the beautiful passage about Lisa when he spoke from his mother's arms, he says said

as a baby, the Prophet Jesus said as a baby, what else Ani beside it was the karate module to Haja Allah commanded me to pray and give zeca as long as I live, so there is no time limit on Zika meaning Zika is due all the time we are alive. Now in Allah's mercy, he has made three types of charity. The first is nothing or supererogatory. Whenever you want to give, there's no time limit, there's no quantity whenever we want to give. The second is the second of our money. That's what I'm going to talk about today. And the third is the cultural filter and I'll talk about that inshallah. closer to the end of Ramadan because the cathode is due only in Ramadan. The Zakat concept in Islam

is not a tax. It is means it is a means of purifying our wealth. Allah subhana wa tada mentioned in the Quran hoodman unguided him sada tend to talk to him, what was the key him Bihar was Salli ala him, take from them their charity that will cause them to be purified and will cause their money to become clean. So the meaning of Zakat linguistically is that which cleanses Zakah to purify so is that God purifies our money. When we pay zakat, the rest of our money becomes pure and healthy and wholesome. When we do not pay zakat, then that Zakat money becomes filthy and evil for us. Allah says in the Quran, Allah Xena yakunin soon as the Hubba will fill but those who hoard they are

greedy to give and they have their wealth and their gold and their silver and they do not give in the way of Allah then tell them they shall face a severe torment and penalty, that very well that they continue to hoard up. Allah says it will be burnt in the fire of hell, and then it will be used to cauterize them to burn them up the very well that they thought would benefit them it will become a means of punishment. So my dear brothers and sisters very briefly, obviously in a short halter, I cannot go over all of the rules but at hamdulillah I'm available anytime after the setup please come up to me and ask any specific questions. Zakat is obligatory on every single Muslim once a year, if

they own more than the minimum amount, and inshallah for most of us in this Masjid, all of us own more than the minimum amount or the nisab and realize that Zakat is due on the lunar year, not on the solar year. One of the most common mistakes Muslims make is the link there's got to the solar year. And of course, the cat is linked to the lunar year and it is healthy and Islamic. And it makes sense to link Zakat to one of the days of Ramadan so that we are in the better spirit of giving so that we get extra reward. So it is very useful to link Zakat to one of the days of Ramadan, the first day of Ramadan, the 15th of the month on the 20th of Oman, set one day in your mind, and let

that be your and you will Zakat day every single year and then you will calculate your ziggurats based on that there are four types of income that are the cattle that you give Zakat on. Two of them are not relevant to pretty much all of us here and that is agriculture and livestock. If you are a farmer, if you own livestock, then come to me and I'll go back to my books and see I haven't memorized that for the last 15 years. But if you are a farmer you own life.

Or you have a produce, then that's the difference because otherwise for most of us, we only have to deal with two types of pickup. The first is wealth, money, gold, silver currency. And the second is merchandise if we are businessmen buying and selling goods. So if we own stores, if we have anything that we're buying and selling as merchandise, if we're buying and selling houses, we're buying and selling cars. So then we also have the cat of the second type, and that is the business commodities. And if we have more than the nisab, we have to give Zakat The nisab has been set by the Shetty explicitly by the prophet system to be at five grams of gold or 595 grams of silver Of course grams

is the modern term our process some of us Miss odd and whatnot and we have calculated what Islam is called in modern times. And we have calculated that the Prophet system said 85 grams of gold or 595 grams of silver and roughly an hour times that comes out to $3,500 in gold and $326 in silver. By the way, once upon a time, these two quantities were the same, that 85 grams of gold equaled 595 grams of silver when the process of said this, they were the same amount. But of course because of inflation because of the differences in the currencies between gold and silver, these are all very different now and our scholars say when it comes to wealth, currency when it comes to money, we go

with the lesser of the two nutjobs and in this case that is silver. So if we have in our bank account or in our possessions are owning more than $326 for the lunar year then Zakat is obligatory on us. Now the Zakat that is due on gold and silver is 2.5%. And the same goes for currency and this only applies to currency and gold and silver. Zakat is not due on any other precious stones. If a woman has a necklace of diamonds, or pearls or anything, this is personal jewelry and personal jewelry that is not golden silver does not have zakat. Now of course if you're a businessman and you buy and sell diamond and buy and sell pearl necklaces, then there will be the cat because you're a

businessman, but if you're owning this as a woman or as a man who has anything that is personal, you own an expensive watch or whatever, there is no Zakat on your personal items other than gold and silver. So the correct position and there is a controversy, gold and silver jewelry you do pay zakat on it now there is a controversy the position that I follow and this is the inshallah stronger opinion that a woman who owns golden silver there is Zakat do on the golden silver that she owns. If it is above this nisab amount, if she does not have this much, then there is there is no zakat. So a lady every woman should know how much is it that she owns. She can go to any jeweler and get it

weighed so that you can understand is it above the nisab or less than the nisab and if it is above the nisab then she must give Zakat on it now I'm going to say something that the brothers are going to like and the sisters are not going to like unfortunately it is a fact I cannot change the *ty out. When a woman owns jewelry. She is the one that must pay zakat on the jewelry and not her husband. There is no What is it in the IRS when your marriage you have the tax break. What is that? The joint the joint tax break right? There is no joint tax break in this area. right there's no joint Zakat and the *tier the man gives his god the woman gives her zakat. So if the woman has

more than the nisab then she is the one that is obliged to give Zakat on that now if the husband wants to give up his generosity and hamdulillah that's great, it is allowed for the husband to give and that is his gift to his wife that he is giving on behalf of her and inshallah if she's not earning than husbands honestly it is a part of being a gentleman if she's not earning her own money and you are the one earning the money and she has only gold jewelry then inshallah I will say it is good and it is Mr. Heaven is Islamic for you to volunteer to give. But the offset or the basic rule that I cannot change, and this is the shady as rule. If a woman owns it, she has to give Zakat on

it. It's not the responsibility of her husband to give Zakat, but if he volunteers and is generous, then Alhamdulillah that is good for his Deen and dunya definitely, definitely better for his dounia as well. Now, when it comes to when it comes to cash, how does one calculate Zakat? Now this is

to be honest, the more technical method of calculating Zakat is so complicated and I'll just explain it in one minute. If you don't understand I'm not expecting I'm gonna move to the easier way the more technical and the more accurate is that it is as if for those of us that are salaried employees which is 99% of us. We have a regular salary, salaried employees, you get a set amount every single month. And Zakat is due on not on the income but on the remaining amount that you've had for a year. This is the mercy of the *ty Zakat is not based on your income. Zakat is based on what you have left after the expenditure after you've paid your rent fed your kids paid

For what you need to pay for, what do you have left? So technically, imagine if you had 12 bank accounts for every month of the Islamic calendar. So Mohammed himself as your water bill, would you have 12 bank accounts, and for every month you spent, then the next moharram comes, what do you have left in the moharram bank account from last month, you will give us a cut on that amount. Then the next show, while how much you have left that amount. Who amongst us can do this? It's too complicated. Because of this, our modern scholars, and the Robertson alum is one of them the oyc, which is the largest group of urla, they have given an easy way and they say inshallah it is

permissible, and that is that the average worker who has a regular salary that's 99% of us we know how much we're getting, the easiest thing to do is to simply to choose your cat to date, 20th of Ramadan, and on that date, and Alon knows you're not playing games, and you didn't change anything before that you're just living your lifestyle on that date, what you have on the 20th of a normal bond. If that is your date, you just calculate that amount and you give 2.5% what is in your bank account, how much you have cash at your house, what is your actual liquid assets that you have of actual cash commodities, we're getting to stocks and 401 K's in a while and you simply pay 2.5% of

Zakat on that we already said there is no Zakat on personal items your house, there's no Zipcar, the cars that you drive knows that your furniture, your clothes, your watches, that which you use for your daily life, your pots and pans knows that got on that. So whatever you have that you're using in your house that is not Zakat suitable for those that have businesses. So you're buying and selling cars, let's say you own a car lot, and you're buying and selling cars, they must pay zakat on the price of the cars on the day that they're giving Zakat, the 20th of Ramadan, that will be there's a cat so they own 50 cars on that day. Now suppose the day before on the 19th of Ramadan, it

just so happened, somebody walked in and purchased 30 of those cars, and he went down to 20 out of 50 pidurangala. Okay, he will pay zakat on the 20 he will pay zakat on whatever's left. And suppose he had a bad streak and nobody's coming for weeks, and he has more quantity of cars than typically he has again, but de la Alon knows he's not playing with the *ty out whatever is in his warehouse and his merchandise, whatever he owns, that will be there's a cut 2.5% because that's his property, he owns it. That's what he actually has. And so it's so happened on that day. Same goes if you buy and sell houses, if you're in the market of flipping houses, whatever house you have, or houses you

have that are meant to be sold. On that day of Zakat, you calculate 2.5% of the actual cost of the house, and you give the cat for that. However, if you rent out houses, ie you're not intending to sell the house, you're simply leasing out the house. In this case, the house is not a business commodity, because you're not selling it rather the income will be added to your bank account and whatever is left, you will give Zakat on the income from the house and not the actual price of the house. Another big controversy in our times is the stock market. And there are literally four or five opinions from modern scholars about this issue. And this is a very, very gray area as the

scholar of your choice. And as people that are knowledgeable. I have always said I'm not an expert in Islamic Finance, I simply read and convey to you what I believe is the majority opinion, there is a range of opinions. And one opinion that seems to make sense to me and Allah knows best is that we look at those stocks that are meant for long term that are not meant for day to day trade. And we don't have to pay zakat on those that are long term investments that we're simply saving for a rainy day, we will give Zakat when we actually cash that stock out. And this is different than the day trader who goes and he buys and sells in the same day. He goes and buys and sells every week, he's

looking at the price every single day. So those that are actively engaging in the stock market, they take the ruling of basically business commodities, because they're engaged on a daily or weekly they're looking they're buying, they're aggressive, if you like those that are passive, and they just simply put it in the stock. And they're not really looking at the prices on a daily level. And of course, there's a bit of a gray area who is active who's passive. I'm giving the two extreme examples, and they're in the middle. There are many in the middle and this is where the controversy occurs. But one opinion is that long term investments are simply like a house that you have, you pay

zakat, on the dividends and not on the actual amount and short term investments you will treat them as business property. So you will give 2.5% of that as for 401k plans, then this is something that I have done actually quite a lot of research in this one area because I was bombarded with questions and I am now confident to say that insha Allah who tada What seems to be the correct position. There is no Zakat on 401k. If you don't have

Have unfettered access to it. ie if there is a penalty for you to access your 401k, then you don't technically have access to it. So it's not your full milk it's not your full milk in Arabic means ownership, you do not have full ownership of 401k. So you will only give Zakat when you have full ownership and that means when you can cash out so the day you can cash out without any penalty when you reach whatever the age is, that day is when you have to give Zakat for one year, because now you get this property this amount. So you will give us the account for one year from that 401 K. And the cat can be and should be given to distant relatives, but not to ascendance and descendants and

spouses. Okay? Zakat can and should be given to relatives, cousins, uncles, aunts, siblings, you can give Zakat to your siblings if they need zakat. And it is encouraged to do this if they need Zika. But you cannot give the cat to people above you or below you. Why? Because you are wired you have to take care of them. You cannot give Zika to your mother, you have to take care of her. You cannot give the car to your children. You have to take care of them. That's a part of your responsibility. So you cannot pay zakat to ascendance and descendants. You can pay zakat to even siblings if they are in need of zakat. And Zakat should be distributed some locally and some internationally. And

this is from the Sunnah. In fact, some even say it's a sooner to give all locally. And there is a bit of a controversy here in sha Allah, one can say that for most of us who have relatives and needs in other lands, and we are also living in this land, it seems that the strongest case should be you should split your Zakat up some of it should be local and yes, some should be local, some should be local. So find in Memphis, where to give tickets and every mustard we have it here and let's just say Lamb has it and all of the massages. They have Zakat funds, I strongly encourage you to give some of your tickets locally here Memphis we have an Zakat fund where we give to local people and

inshallah whenever the hotel has one of the Zakat committee will come and show you what we've done in the last year. We have helped and hamdulillah hundreds of people locally here in Memphis sisters who have been kicked out of their houses, people that have basically passed away they've left children, they have nowhere to go to they've come to the massage. So we need definitely your funds locally as well. So give some funds to the local massage. We had MIT How was it God's fun, send some Zakat to overseas your relatives and whatnot. Give some to the Islamic charities that accept Zika and the correct position. Insha Allah Zakat cannot be given to institutions to build institutions,

you cannot give zakah to build a Masjid to build a hospital you can give Zakat to the poor people who need to go to the hospital, you can give Zakat to the orphans. But the stronger opinion as of yet that the majority hold two, you cannot give zakah to build the hospital. This is a gray area I'll say it and there are people that hold various positions and I myself am ambivalent but definitely the majority opinion as of yet by the scholars of our times, we don't want to open this door because if we were to open this door, then it's going to cause a lot of chaos. It makes a lot more sense pays a cut to the actual needy people somebody needs to go to the hospital for an

emergency operation give him this occur. And this will clear the door otherwise we will open up into a gray area Pandora's box that is best not to get into and the final point how long money if you have interest money, if you have money that is not allowed for you to have then there is no concept of zakat. It is ludicrous. You cannot give Zakat on how long money Allah sorry the Prophet system said in the law, even law Jacobo Illa yerba Allah is pure, and he only accepts that which is pure. So if you have out on money, you need to get rid of it. There is no concept of paying Zakat on hold on money, get rid of that head on money and expect a law to reward you for getting rid of it, you're

not going to get rewarded for sadhaka of that money, it's not your money in the first place, you will get rewarded for showing honesty for showing guilt for showing I don't want this money because it just how long Allah will reward you for that. But you're not going to get rewarded for the actual money because you shouldn't have had it in the first place. There's one more point I don't have time to go into it. And that is the concept of debts. And this is a longer topic. If anybody has specific questions, they can come to me but to be very simplistic a strong debt, ie a debt that is dire and it's immediate. You can take it into account when you add or subtract your wealth. If you owe

somebody $10,000. You can take this into account and deducted if they wanted back immediately. A weak debt they don't want to back immediately. It's there no big deal. If you have a mortgage whether it's halal or haram is besides the point it's so weak debt. so weak debt is going to be years decades for debate. You don't take your mortgage into into account or else all of us will have a mortgage. We're

We will not have any money to pay zakat on. So we differentiate between strong debt and weak debt. Strong debts are taken into account and weak debts, those that are long term or we're not expecting immediate, they are not taken into account and inshallah I'm here for any more detailed questions Joseph qumola who had on set on what economists will argue about