Kuwaitis seek assurances on zakat

Muslim men break their fast at sunset during Ramadan in 2006 in Kuwait. Many Kuwaiti donors want to verify their zakat will received by their intended targets. [Stephanie McGehee/Reuters]

Muslim men break their fast at sunset during Ramadan in 2006 in Kuwait. Many Kuwaiti donors want to verify their zakat will received by their intended targets. [Stephanie McGehee/Reuters]

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As Ramadan approaches, many Kuwaitis began selecting organisations to donate their zakat during the holy month.

NGOs and state institutions typically handle donations and zakat collections, but some Kuwaitis are not confident that their zakat reaches their intended recipients.

In response to public concern, officials at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour developed regulations governing zakat collection, including a requirement that organisations publicise the names of alms recipients.

"With the approach of the holy month, the ministry completed implementation of the annual regulation for the collection of donations in mosques, and co-operated with the Ministry of Religious Endowments [and Islamic Affairs] to implement the Ninth Project, which regulates the collection of cash donations during the month of Ramadan," said Munira al-Fadhli, assistant undersecretary for social development at the ministry.

"[The Ninth Project] prohibits charitable organisations from collecting cash donations except through approved vouchers printed by the ministry, and all organisations are required to furnish a comprehensive report on the amount they collect through the project and how funds are disbursed inside and outside the country," she said.

Aid for Syrian refugees

"After the crisis broke out in Syria, many tried to send aid to unarmed civilians there and many other parties that started collecting aid donations in the form of cash, medicine and food," said Mohammed al-Sayegh, a Kuwaiti.

"But no one knows if the aid and donations actually reached their intended recipients or were held back at collection centres, and this is the ongoing debate we re-visit every year," he said.

Al-Sayegh said many people who offer zakat payments "prefer to rely on trustworthy acquaintances or family members in Kuwait to deliver the money to the intended recipients for fear the recipients would not receive them".

"There are those who save their donations and give them out in one lump sum during the holy month of Ramadan, " Haya al-Hamad, another Kuwaiti resident, said. "But many do not know how to reach families in need of aid and thus rely on governmental organisations, such as Beit al-Zakat and Islamic Aid among other governmental and non-governmental organisations operating under state supervision."

"It is the best way to ensure that the money does not go to terrorist groups or other illegal organisations anywhere in the world," she added.

Dr. Abdul Latif al-Sareekh, a counsellor and lecturer on human development, said zakat strengthens ties between members of a community.

"Zakat infuses a spirit of brotherhood in the community, otherwise it would not have been imposed as a duty on every Muslim," he said.

"It is not a duty and necessity in Islam alone, but also in all heavenly religions sanctioned by God because it strengthens the bonds of love between members of the community and removes the differences between them," al-Sareekh said. "Parents need to instil it in the hearts of their children at an early age so they get accustomed to being kind to the less fortunate and learn to show compassion towards them upon becoming adults."

"For over 15 years I have relied on someone close to me who works in the humanitarian aid field in Africa to deliver my zakat. He travels there specifically to visit with families that need aid," he said.

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    فاروق سداد

    2012-8-26

    We must monitor all the charitable organizations that collect the donations and almsgivings and other donations. An official governmental and Islamic institution must supervise these affairs, particularly given that some organizations deceive the people and exploit the donations for personal purposes in many cases, and others affirm that may also include deception of the people as to the charitable purposes. Hence, the government must monitor these associations to monitor the people’s money and the rights of the poor who deserve these donations rather than send them to the terrorist groups to finance their illegal activities that are tempted with the security of the State because they use the money to buy arms and pay to the thugs. All the charitable activities should be under the supervision of the government and under the eyes of the security services. There also should be a mechanism to mentor these donations when sent abroad to ensure that they are sent to those who deserve them, particularly given that all States have security troubles and the State witnessed the Arab Spring revolutions. In these States, the security situation is fragile because of the instability and lack of the control authorities to monitor these associations. We should also warn the people against these affairs and they should never pay money without making sure that the associations are trustworthy through the ads in the State-owned TV to make the people feel assured about the destination of their money.

  • محمد السيد

    2012-8-22

    The importance of the Islamic State control of the alms and where this money goes as well as where they are sent and whether this money goes to the accurate place for which it has been collected. Is it done for the poor or needy, as the Islam said or is this money that the State has collected on the grounds that it takes them to the poor people, the orphans and the needy, or is the State funding the terrorists and the radical, and not those who deserve it? It is possible for a certain country to do a type of terrorism that may be called the State terrorism itself the State personnel or terrorizing the peoples by the incubator States, or their homelands. The State is doing that in order to make some kind of chaos and communal and sectarian conflicts among the people of the society, and the rise of the near-civil war among the people. Thus, the State is financing terrorism through the supply of terrorists and the radical people, and all the money coming into the State as alms. Therefore, the State may collect a very large sum of money that may reach thousands of millions of money. When supplying the money to the terrorists or sending all the alms to subversion using terrorism and terrorists under the name of Islam, then of course, this is forbidden and an encroachment against the rights of the helpless poor and needy people. Therefore, it is considered a breach against mankind; however, rather than the State finances terrorism, as the State has no needy or poor, this State can supply these money of alms to another Arab State that needs alms.

  • عرفات حسن

    2012-8-22

    Monitoring the Zakaah is very important, and it should be in their hands through the intensification of the efforts and the serious work, which is important for the international public through the excretion of the hard efforts to prevent the massacres. Many people were wounded in Syria and there are some people who demand help from the other countries. The defunct exams in the region are very astonishing and there are already Arab and foreign startles through the comma and during some conferences, students, and agreements to prevent the massacres and hospitals. The parents spoke much and made complaints about Syria because they did their best to prevent the bloodshed of their children. There are material bloodshed and displacement of the children and classes and killing the privacy and innocent. Zakaah must be monitored by the starts to prevent the students from the violence and the subject, which leads to the destruction of the state. Zakaah in Iraq must be supervised well through the honorable soldiers, good individual planning, and good communication with the international community. Spiritually and thus to encourage after the international state, they found that they have to make these exams with wonderful and great effort to spread their difficulty. Supervising the Zakaah is essential because Zakaah suffers from many losses and those who work in this respect must monitor it very well. (This comment does not make sense)

  • محمد عباس

    2012-7-29

    Monitoring Zakaah (Obligatory Charity) is a very important matter to ensure that it won`t go to the hands of terrorists and this happens because there is it goes to who deserves it and to fall in the hands of terrorists who would use to kill innocent people.

  • حسين فرهود

    2012-7-29

    Monitoring Zakat money is a very important matter to ensure that it won`t go to the hands of terrorists and this happens because it is not well monitored, it should be so in order to have the money go to who deserves it and not to allow it to reach the hands of terrorists who would use it to kill innocent people.

  • ناظم ابراهيم كريم

    2012-7-29

    It is important for the Islamic state to monitor zakat (alms) funds, which could reach their maximum particularly in the holy month of Ramadan, because people give all forms of zakat in this noble month, which is the great month of Ramadan. There are many advanced and new ways and methods, and this great development should be taken advantage of in terms of the systems and methods used in databases which are meticulously registered in most of the Arab and Muslim countries in order to register properties and wealth and the various means of production and matching them to those who have to pay zakat, because in this way the government knows where the zakat money goes, and consequently, in this manner it can prevent it from ending up in the hands of terrorists. There is constant development taking place in this field of the working environment by means of organizing various forums and conferences and workshops, in full collaboration with universities, centers for research and studies, training institutes and continuing training programs for those working in this field. This could produce great and beautiful results as the government will be able to determine the amount of zakat funds collected and where this money goes. All of this is for the purpose of continual improvement and innovation and for quality control and for ensuring the implementation of the objectives of these government institutions in terms of sending the zakat money to the beneficiaries and those that deserve it, and consequently it will be absolutely impossible for terrorists to lay their hands on it. And we need to benefit from this complete census of the members of the Islamic state in order to know who really deserves zakat, and they are distinguished from those that have to pay it, and the real need for those people is calculated taking into consideration of course that the legal function of zakat is to ensure the provision of exactly the sufficient amount and not subsistence, as everyone is given according to their needs. Efforts should be made in order to exploit the excess of zakat money for the benefit of those that really deserve it in large development projects for the government and those in need.

  • صدقي ناصر

    2012-7-26

    States should work to control the organizations that work to collect donations and to impose tight control so that it can restrict the money so as not to exploit the terrorist movements used to finance terrorist operations, especially that many of the terrorist organizations rely on money due on purchase of arms and working to lure a lot of people to work on incorporation into cells the lack of money for the movements that make them unable to carry out any terrorist attacks in the future, causing the disappearance of those movements in the future because we do so we will work to put an end to those movements.

  • ناصر

    2012-7-26

    The Arab governments must work to control the Zakaah through the charities associations operating in the hands of the government because there are suspicious outfits working to raise funds in a natural way for the poor and the needy, but originally they collect in order to finance suspicious terrorist cells that work to sabotage the homelands and work to spread corruption and sedition. There are so many mosques that operate on regular fund-raising for Zakaah and then move it in suspicious ways to finance all the terrorist cells of al-Qaeda. Governments must work to control the Arab Masjeds belonging to the non-governmental organizations and work to gather appropriate information about their owners before giving them a license and must work not to grant licenses to charities. Government should work to monitor and control these associations handling inbound and outbound money and work to keep track of the money and the ways in which the disposal of the areas in which they work to reduce the spread of terrorism, which operates many of the associations of financing. If their financing is interrupted these associations will not be able to work on corrupting homelands because they will not be able to save money, and therefore will stop their work that has spread within the homelands, which will limit the spread of crimes of those movements at the same time it will disappear these movements over time and we will find our homelands free of those movements that abound in corruption and this is what we wish all to happen.

  • حسين جويد

    2012-7-26

    The Government must control Zakat money which is raised by the state in order to grant them to the needy, the poor, the destitute and those who may need such money, funds and donations so that they will be able to live like any other ordinary people on earth. Therefore, the State must control this money so that they will not be considered as a funding of terrorism and terrorists and these poor people will become the victims of Zakat that is collected so that they could eat, drink and meet their daily needs.