In our
previous chapter we discussed about Rights of God, which are
necessary for our personal training. Like Prayers and fasting
should be done by us in time so that we should not forget the
real essence and teachings of Islam and God. The rest of the
pillars of Islam are not obligatory. Performance of human rights
is not an obligation like prayers and fasting which can be
excused in certain conditions, such as for women during their
periods or if someone is sick or old. If one recovers from such
shortcomings, then you have to offer the qada.
For Hajj
pilgrimage and Zakat orders are different.
They are
obligatory only if you have the capacity to perform these. For
example pay zakat only when, after fulfilling your household
responsibilities and dept, you still have the amount of money
left at the end of a year to pay zakat. It helps in preventing
the avarice of wealth and all factors causing it. It is because
of this that in society all evils take birth. Man gets
powerless and emotionless in clutches of greed of wealth. We
start to take advantage of other's problems. This is what is
happening in our world. What are its drawbacks? Rich gets richer
and poor gets poorer. At present only twenty nine organizations
are running the economic system of world. Their MDs are paid in
millions whereas a common man doesn’t have enough to eat. Every
country is in their claws as all leaders are elected by them and
are forced to work as their agents.
Here it is
important to mention one thing that spendthrifts are called
Satan's brothers. You should have enough savings by the end of a
year so that you do don’t become a borrower. Here you have to
decide what is important and what is not important. For example,
nowadays in our country, people spend lavishly on dresses and
parties on weddings. Bridal dress to be worn for one day by a
bride costs about a hundred thousand rupees. This is totally
un-Islamic. The expense of Bridal dress still has a merit as it
is to be worn by the bride though only once in their lifetime.
But what about other women whose dresses are sometimes more
expensive than the bride's and are usually not worn again. Same
goes with the jewelry.
We have
adopted many of the customs from Hindus making them a part of
Islam. As at the mehndi ceremony, the singing competition.
Not only
this, for every day there are separate meals with a variety,
about which one has to think what to eat and what not. Even if
you put one spoon from all the dishes you would need a large
platter. Do you not think that these expenses are unnecessary?
Allah has clearly mentioned all this in Surrah al’asr, and
other surah in qur’an if you have time, do read it. One who
spends lavishly is a brother of Satan. There should be how many
rooms in your house, is between you and your Allah You know your
needs; if you build a Taj Mahal for a small family and don't pay
your zakat, as you have loans on you. Don’t you think that it is
like the excuse (heela) of the previous nations? IF you keep
your spending in limits and all Muslims if pay zakat regularly,
it will be hard to find a person on earth who is in need of
zakat. |