Interjection by Abu Malik Ibrahim Shuqara regarding the issue of collecting zakah and entering into financial matters.

Abu Malik: A bit of my experience in... actually, I am going to say, and I was about to ask our Shaykh for permission... but I cannot help but respond to the Shaykh—may Allah reward him with good—and say: I spent a period of time in official, professional work in the field of zakah, and I looked into many of the entry points and doubts in the work of zakah. In fact, any financial work—I do not say only zakah, but all financial work—actually first of all is subject to doubt, and no one has taken on financial work and come out of it unscathed except those whom Allah protected from it.

The Shaykh : And they are few.
Abu Malik: Yes, indeed. And during my work, before I took on the role of General Manager of the Zakah Fund, some of the brothers came to me, and I summoned them, or rather, as the brother "Mashhur" indicated, a dispute arose among them over these matters, so I called them. The funds had started coming from here and there for certain committees specifically in this country. I was truly very troubled, and my opinion is, of course, the opinion of our Shaykh, without doubt or hesitation; because money is a place where one slips and falls to the depths of the earth, meaning it does not stop at the middle of the slope, or at a third of it, or at the beginning; no, the one whose foot slips in it keeps falling until he settles at the bottom of the abyss. So I brought these brothers and said to them: I know that you were beloved brothers, and you were loving one another, and I used to envy you for this brotherhood of yours. Now you are enemies; how did the enmity arise between you? It did not arise because you hold positions and are competing for them, nor because you have very large worldly interests, for if it had come to that, we would say, by Allah, the dispute over something is reasonable. But you started the dispute, the severance, and the boycott among yourselves over a few thousand; so what if it became hundreds of thousands, or so on? Then spilling blood would be lawful for you at that time, and would be made permissible; why? It is enough that you are now disputing, you have lost the brotherhood, so how... I said to them: Now I ask you a question: can any one of you say now that, despite claiming that he is working for the da'wah and in the path of the da'wah, and that his work is earnest and not slow, and that there is no delay in it compared to what it was before?
I said to them: You say and claim this now, but do you not think—or rather, you think—I said to them: Do you not conclude now that you have lost the least of the things that were... and were in your possession and filled your hearts; namely your brotherhood and your love? They said: True, yes. I said to them: Then—this means—throw away this money, throw it away, and do not look at it. And I advised them—I also said to them: The da'wah does not need money at all, the da'wah needs knowledge and understanding, and the Salafi da'wah in particular is not mixed with money. And we did not know the scholars of the Salaf or their callers, the famous callers and scholars of the Salaf that we knew, but that they were poor, and they filled the earth with knowledge from one end to the other. Today, money weighs down the ambition and incapacitates the person, and no scholar has been occupied by money but that he turned away from knowledge, and doubt entered him. Therefore, I advised them much and very much. So I endorse the words of our Shaykh, and I say to our brothers who have engaged in money or committees: of course, I am excluding, incidentally, some committees that work in collecting money for the mosques; because this is actually a very specific matter.

The questioner : Temporary.

The Shaykh : Yes, indeed, and it is temporary, as the brother "Ajaj" mentioned, it does not last long; because the conflict begins, this matter actually has a clear and known goal, and it ends at the end of the mosque, and this... the committee stops collecting money. Therefore, my advice does not exceed a part of the advice of our Shaykh—may Allah prolong his life—so I say to our brothers to refrain from these matters, and to know that this work in such committees is a diversion of energies and a waste of them in what is not—I do not say: there is a doubt in it; in what is not prescribed. I say: this is not prescribed, especially when we know from many incidents that they end in enmity and severance. And there is a legal rule, of course, that you all know and have learned, which is called sadd al-dhara'i' (blocking the means to harm), and bringing benefits is prioritized over warding off harms. So I think these are two great rules from the principles of the great Islam that are sufficient for us to gather the edges and tails of our garments so that we are convinced that this da'wah cannot succeed except with knowledge and knowledge alone.