Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Islamic taxes are taxes sanctioned by Islamic law. [1] They are based on both "the legal status of taxable land" and on "the communal or religious status of the taxpayer". [1] Islamic taxes include zakat - one of the five pillars of Islam. Only imposed on Muslims, it is generally described as a 2.5% tax on savings for charity.
Historically, the jizya tax has been understood in Islam as a fee for protection provided by the Muslim ruler to non-Muslims, for the exemption from military service for non-Muslims, for the permission to practice a non-Muslim faith with some communal autonomy in a Muslim state, and as material proof of the non-Muslims' allegiance to the Muslim ...
Under compulsory systems of zakat tax collection, such as Malaysia and Pakistan, evasion is very common and the zakat (alms tax) is regressive. [18] A considerable number of Muslims accept their duty to pay zakat, but deny that the state has a right to levy it, and they may pay zakat voluntarily while evading official collection. [84]
Beneficiaries of zakat include orphans, widowed, poor muslims, debt-ridden, travelers, zakat collectors, new converts to Islam, Islamic clergy. [9] [10] [11] Zakat is prescribed to cleanse the individual's wealth, heart, and baser characteristics in general, and to replace them with virtues. [12]
Zakat can be used to finance a jihad effort in the path of Allah. Zakat money should be used, provided the effort is to raise the banner of Islam. [41] [42] Additionally, the zakat funds may be spent on the administration of a centralized zakat collection system. Historically, Abul A'la Maududi championed the concept of Zakat. [43]
All Muslims who live above the subsistence level must pay an annual alms, known as zakat. In the modern sense, this would be Islam's equivalent to US Social Security or UK National Insurance. This is not charity, but rather an obligation owed by the eligible Muslim to the poor of the community.
The law was then updated to include all foreign or religious laws. [8] The law was challenged by an official of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. In November 2010 a federal judge ruled the law to be unconstitutional and blocked the state from putting it into effect. [9] [10] The court found the ban had the potential to do harm to Muslims.
[1] [2]: 470 The word literally means "protected person", [3] referring to the state's obligation under sharia to protect the individual's life, property, as well as freedom of religion, in exchange for loyalty to the state and payment of the jizya tax, in contrast to the zakat, or obligatory alms, paid by the Muslim subjects. [4]