Sunday, October 30, 2011

Dr Mahathir Urges Rich Nations To Give Small Fraction Of Zakat To Poor Countries

LANGKAWI, Oct 29 (Bernama) -- Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has suggested that a small fraction of the zakat money from rich Muslim nations be set aside to help poor countries or poor people in other countries.
The former prime minister said the zakat money would be distributed to the eight Asnaf (eight categories of people), adding that in most of the rich Muslim nations, the eight Asnaf did not exist anymore.
He said that if they did exist, the amount of zakat money collected would far exceed their needs.
"But, if we consider ourselves as the Ummah, the community of Muslims using the zakat for the poor in other countries cannot be considered as breaching the categories of the people entitled to zakat funds," he added.
Dr Mahathir said this in his keynote address on the first day of the Third Langkawi Islamic Finance & Economics International Conference (LIFE 3) here today.
The three-day conference is themed 'Islamic Banking and Finance: Waqaf, Zakat and Sadakah As Community Empowerment And Strategies For The Economic Transformation Of The Ummaah'.
It is jointly organised by the Insaniah University College, Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI).
Also present were Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Azizan Abdul Razak, IDB president Tan Sri Dr Ahmad Mohamed Ali Al Madani and Insaniah University College Rector Prof Datuk Dr Jamil Osman.
Dr Mahathir, who is also LIFE patron, said even a fraction of the 2.5 per cent zakat that was collected by all countries would be very substantial and it would go a long way to relieve the pain and sufferings of the poor.
He said it would also go a long way towards developing the poor Muslim countries, in terms of building infractures over a period of time and creating jobs for them, through investment in labour-intensive industries.
"Can we spend zakat funds on the infrastructures? If they are for alleviating the poverty and the wretchedness of the people in poor Muslim countries, I do not think we would be going against the injunctions of Islam," said the former prime minister.
Dr Mahathir said, for the purpose of collecting and administering the zakat fund, a special institution should be set up, manned by personnel from the contributing countries.
Muslims, he said, were enjoined to be charitable but they should not confine their largesse to Muslims only, adding that they should also help humanity at large, when the need arose.
tunku : if this idea to become reality, i believe the will be no muslims without food or shelter in this world. we should work on this idea and act on it asap.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

In many developed countries within the corridors of power Aid is defined as money taken from the poor people of the rich countries and given to the rich people of the poor countries. I do not think that we should go with our begging bowl when the rich people of the poor countries are clearly not doing enough to distribute and share our wealth with the less fortunate members of our family.


I do not see why a single person must have five to six luxury cars for himself while his driver has to live for a year on what his boss spends even before he wakes up. This is not about socialism. It is all about pay the right wages for the work that is done. But this theory has been distorted as the floodgates for foreign workers has been opened to promote a cheap wage policy in this country.

Malaysia is a rich country and we must not make ourselves a laughing stock of this world.

Anonymous said...

here we are not talking about receiving zakat from rich country to malaysia, we are talking about giving the poor countries such like somalia, palestine etc.we r not laughing stock.

Anonymous said...

Dear Anon 12:30,

In the 70s and 80s developing countries told the developed countries that they did not want aid but trade with fair prices for their exports. The same applies today. The least developed cpuntries are not waiting for our aid but fair wages and treatment for those working in developing countries.

Anonymous said...

Woi, kat Malaysia masih ramai yang miskin dan papa kedana kat estet, kampung dan pendalaman. Buta ke atau pura-pura tak nampak?

Negara sendiri pun tak pandai urus nak ajar negara dan orang lain pulak.

Tak baca suratkhabar atau tengok TV ke?