- Zakat is the third pillar of Islam. It is a religious obligation on every individual Muslim, which involves a contribution of 2.5% of their savings to those eligible.
- Any Muslim who satisfies the zakat threshold (also known as the nisab threshold), is obligated to contribute a portion of their wealth.
- The nisab threshold is the minimum wealth a Muslim possesses to be eligible to contribute their zakat.
- Gold and silver are the two values used to calculate the nisab threshold. The values include:
87.48 grams of gold.
612.36 grams of silver.
- There are eight categories of people who are eligible to receive zakat contributions. These include:
- The poor, meaning low-income or indigent.
- The needy, meaning someone who is in difficulty.
- Zakat administrators.
- Those whose hearts are to be reconciled, meaning new Muslims and friends of the Muslim community.
- Those in bondage (slaves and captives).
- The debt-ridden.
- Those in the cause of God.
- The wayfarer, meaning those who are stranded or traveling with few resources.
Outreach and Zakat
- The board of trustees are aware of valid Islamic scholarly opinions on the permissibility of allocating zakat funds to outreach (dawah). This opinion maintains that the “those in the cause of God” category is to be intepreted, in our contemporary context, as upholding and strengthening Islam through outreach.
- Although the above scholarly opinion has classical and modern advocates adhering to various schools of thoughts, the trustees have decided not to use zakat funds on outreach.
New Muslims and Zakat
- The board of trustees adopt the valid Islamic scholarly opinion that zakat funds can be used for the development and empowerment of new Muslims. This is based on an interpretation of the “Those whose hearts are to be reconciled” category.
- These funds can be used to ensure people who have embraced Islam continue to remain Muslim and strengthen their faith. This position is adopted by many scholars from all the Islamic schools of jurisprudence.
- Receiving donations:
Donations to iERA can be received view 4 ways:
- Single donations (https://iera.org/single-donation/)
- Regular donations (https://go.iera.org/)
- Cheque or bank transfer (https://iera.org/donate-via-cheque-or-bank-transfer/)
- Single donations: When a donor wants to donate with a one-off donation and they want to pay with their zakat funds, they will click the relevant box provided online.
- Regular donations: iERA do not accept zakat as a regular donation.