Uncharitable charities

What is the purpose of charity? To create more beggars or to make those with limited or no resources self-sufficient.

It becomes a tricky question, especially when charity is one of the religious obligations, such as in Islam, and is also considered a source of keeping away bad luck, ill fate or rough times. Alms, either in cash or in things of daily usage such as grains, wheat, rice, sugar etc, are given to please God and to generate a spiritual aura that stops negative forces from penetrating the life, heart or mind of the alms giver.

Four of the pillars of Islam — starting with Salat (Prayers), Som (fasting), Haj (pilgrimage) and Zakat (charity) — are meant to purify the hearts of and create a sense of community among the believers. Other than Salat or Namaz, which is obligatory five times a day, the rest of the three obligations are performed once a year. Since the function of Namaz is to purify the heart and to prevent the mind of the believer from becoming a storehouse of jealousy, greed, envy, hatred, lies and the mother of all diseases, hypocrisy, a believer is supposed to look inward in quiet and solitary moments, every few hours.

Zakat, according to the Quran, is a process of purification of the believers’ wealth and, like Salat, is supposed to cleanse the hearts and minds of the believers of hatred, greed, jealousy, etc. Therefore, not giving Zakat despite being eligible is a punishable offence.

Namaz and Zakat are mentioned together in the Quran over 700 times. The believers are also encouraged repeatedly to help others through Sadaqat — voluntary almsgiving, which has various forms and shapes. Even a smile has been mentioned as Sadaqa in one of the sayings of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him).

The entire idea to institutionalise almsgiving has been to create a society which is sensitive to the needs of others and whose people are accessible to one another in times of crisis. Nowhere Zakat or Sadaqat have been mentioned to divide society into haves and have-nots. Neither do they create any particular class among the believers who are looked upon for sustenance by those with meagre resources. Moreover, they are not meant to make one part of society dependent or, worse, take away from them the will to work and earn. Furthermore, any almsgiving that erodes the receiver’s self-esteem displeases Allah while adding to the impurities of the provider. So, if putting a morsel in the month of the hungry or pulling someone out of poverty is killing their will to survive on their own, it is an indication of a wrong approach towards Zakat and Sadaqat.

Islamic scholars have viewed Zakat and Sadaqat as tools to lift people out of poverty, and in the Islamic finance and banking system, they are used as financial instruments to support the economically impoverished section of society.

In the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the case is different, though.

Over the period since Zakat, which the Government of Pakistan also collects through Baitul Maal, has been swindled and stolen, people stopped trusting banks to distribute their Zakat. However, that does not mean the process has made the private endeavour anymore professional or sustainable. On top of it, lack of public service messages, sparse institutional grooming, growing religious fanaticism and absence of the fear of accountability of the rule of law and, in many cases, the wherewithal to defy the processes to accomplish religious obligations correctly, have resulted in the wastage of astronomical amount of Sadaqat and Zakat on useless things. The directionless practice of almsgiving has also made a large section of the people redundant, beggars and worse devoid of self-esteem — they have no qualms in spreading their hands for alms, considering it their right to seek financial help from those who have it. On the flip side, those with resources pay low salaries to their workers while supporting them every month with cash or kind in the name of alms. What if instead of giving Sadaqat they give sufficient salaries to their workers? Would it not be more rewarding in lifting people out of poverty and maintaining their self-esteem? Any extra coin given in the name of alms burdens the soul. However, an extra coin given as remuneration to compensate for hardwork relieves the soul of all the bounds.

Instead of giving out free lunches, why not create opportunities for people to become financially independent? There are many examples of it: the Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad (BIMB) set up the Sadaqah House in 2018. The Sadaqah House operates as a charity crowd-funding platform where potential donors are introduced to different charity projects. This concept was further broadened in 2020, and the BangKIT microfinance facility was introduced to encourage entrepreneurship. “The facility is designed to assist selected unbanked micro-entrepreneurs in obtaining capital for start-ups or expanding their businesses. It provides financing from as low as RM 500 to RM 3,000 for start-up businesses and RM 3,000-RM 20,000 for business expansion, based on Qard Hasan (benevolent loan) contract.”

In another instance, Indonesia blended Zakat with other financial sources such as UNDP to generate $350,000 to construct four micro-hydropower. This community-based service provided electricity to over 4,000 people in Sumatra’s Jambi province.

Islam’s potential to generate funds to alleviate poverty is ruefully ignored and wasted in Pakistan. We need to stop doling out money to people seeking monetary help, instead spend funds on job creation/opportunities to give people the realisation that charity is not meant to make them baggers but self-reliant. This is only possible when we value people, their work and their self-esteem.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 29^th, 2022.

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