What is the appropriate answer to some of the objections raised regarding not paying the zakat of currency according to its conditions in trade goods?
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The Shaykh : And I know that on this occasion, some objections are raised, and this is what I referred to earlier: that a Muslim should not judge by his own intellect in the Shari'ah of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and say, "Why do we have to pay out? One person, for example, has seven hundred or eight hundred dinars, and he has to look at the amount of two and a half percent, while another person has thousands and millions converted into trade, and he does not have to look at it the way that one does." This is what I mentioned earlier: that a Muslim should not say such a thing, because it is legislation from Allah, the All-Knowing, the Wise, regarding what is best for the servants. I presented this not because we do not have a reassuring answer for people of intellect and reason that this Shari'ah I mentioned regarding trade goods is the most beneficial for the Muslim community, unlike what comes to the minds of others, who think it is more beneficial to convert these goods into a monetary value and then pay out from it a known percentage of two and a half percent. As long as we are asked, we answer with what is known to every person of sound mind. Suppose a wealthy man pays out from the goods he has what his soul is willing to give, and what he pays out does not equal, in monetary value, what would be the case if he were told, according to the first opinion: "Appraise the goods you have." It would come out to, for example, one million. One million at two and a half percent would come out to much more than the value of the goods he paid out in their physical form. Suppose a person did this, and we said that the Wise Lawgiver, who threatened those who hoard gold and silver and do not pay its zakat in the known way, upon the completion of the lunar year with the nisab, if it were said to these wealthy people with trade goods: "Do not engage your wealth in trade goods, keep it in the boxes, and pay out from it at two and a half percent," now the question comes, as they say today, which poses itself: What is more beneficial for the Islamic society: that the Lawgiver enacts a law that whoever hoards his wealth and pays its zakat annually has no sin upon him and has fulfilled the obligation, or that whoever converts his wealth into trade goods, thereby employing the community in its various classes and types? There is no doubt that the second is more beneficial, not only for the poor and the needy, but also for those above them, even the wealthy, because employing wealth, putting it out to work with economic activity as they say today, is better than hoarding wealth in boxes, even if it is noble and one pays the obligatory zakat on this hoarded currency. So, as if Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is saying in the language of the situation to the merchants: "Do not hoard your wealth, but rather, peace be upon you..." He tells them: "Employ your wealth and pay out from it what your souls are pleased to give? Pay out. Employ your wealth and pay out from your goods what your souls are pleased to give, and this is what Allah has obligated upon you. This is the answer regarding trade goods."
Source
www.al-albany.com
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