Benefits in Paying Zakah.

The Shaykh : And I tell you, my brothers, that the zakah you pay out of your wealth has great benefits. Among them is the purification of the person. Pay attention: What does the purification of the person refer to? First, it is purification from sins, for zakah erases sins. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: This is purification; it purifies the person from vices, whereby he joins the noble ones. If he withholds it, he joins the stingy ones. It purifies him from bad character. It purifies him, meaning it purifies his good deeds and increases them, because zakah is a good deed, and every good deed a person performs increases his good deeds. For the path of the Salaf, the people of the Sunnah and the community, is that faith increases with obedience and decreases with disobedience. So it purifies faith and religion. It also purifies wealth, meaning it increases wealth. Does it increase it in quantity, quality, or both? Both. If you have forty thousand and you pay out a thousand, its quantity has decreased, has it not? But its quality does not decrease; rather, it increases. Allah sends down blessing in it. And perhaps if zakah is withheld, Allah sends losses and deficiencies upon your wealth, or you are afflicted with an illness, or your family is afflicted with an illness, and your wealth is exhausted at the doctors. Clear? Good. We took from the forty thousand, so the quantity decreased, but perhaps Allah opens for you a door of provision that increases these forty thousand. The door of provision increases these forty thousand until you reach a great amount of wealth. So zakah has great benefits, and withholding it has great harms.