The Obligatory Charity is one of the four rituals of Submission alongside, the Contact Prayers, the Fasting, and the Pilgrimage.
The Obligatory Charity, also known as Zakat, consists of giving 2,5% of your unused wealth to those in need every year. When someone wants to become a submitter, he or she should calculate the amount of cash, saving etc. he or she has, and he should give 1/40 or 2,5% of it to the poor. He or she declares his calculation process and the charity amount to the Congregation Director of the community.
Giving the money to the poor
Then, the submitter has the choice to either give the money to the poor directly, or he gives it to the Congregation Director to distribute it on his behalf to those in need. This is the very first step to become a submitter. And then every year each submitter starts again by calculating their unused wealth, and declaring 2.5% of it to give to the needy people, so that his wealth can be purified. The word Zakat in Arabic literally means “purification (of your wealth)”.
Additionally, if during the year, the submitter does a public sin, about which the other submitters also know, he or she should pay a penalty charity for that sin, to purify his sin, and also purify the community from that sin. All the penalty charity collected is spent in the cause of God, like building mosques. There is absolutely no donation or membership fees or any payment which are asked from submitters outside of the annual obligatory charity and the penalty charity.
If you want to give your Obligatory Charity with us, and become a submitter, please visit this page : I want to join
Learn more about the Obligatory Charity:
The details of the Obligatory Charity
Why Should We Organize Obligatory Charity Today?
The principle of Penalty Zakat
Atonement for Mixed Deeds Through Penalty Zakat
Does Zakat Come From Wealth or From Income?
Zakat Distribution Arrangement
Living Together with Non-Submitters
Is Bank Interest Prohibited in the Quran?
By: Guillaume Guy