Dasoond / Dasond / Daswand

shahnazbarker · Joined: 22 Dec 2003 Posts: 4

YAM I would like to know can we give dasoond to needy person if we he/she is going to use for good. Please let me know. Its just a question.

ShamsB · Joined: 04 Aug 2004 Posts: 870

shahnazbarker · Joined: 22 Dec 2003 Posts: 4

Yam

Thank you very much for your reply.

I knew that but people were asking me question that's why I got bit muddle and wanted to know more detail about Dasoond.

They ask me why do we have to give to Mukhi Sahed, Its too much money, how do you know they are using for good cause etc etc which makes me upset.

We believe and its our faith and no argument on that once we have given to Mowla's representative its them to decide and I dont want to know where they spent and what do they do. But how to explain those who ask very stupid questions.

ShamsB · Joined: 04 Aug 2004 Posts: 870

shahnazbarker · Joined: 22 Dec 2003 Posts: 4

Hi Shams Thanks for your help and guidance. I agree with you. I was just confused. yam

Aeesta · Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 17

M/S and K/S have responsibilities to carry out as per MHI's instructions.

kmaherali · Joined: 27 Mar 2003 Posts: 9913

In my opinion, there are two aspects of Dasond: the Batini and the Zaheri.
The Batini aspect is the essential one and it deals with the inner aspect of our souls. It purifies our souls. That is what should matter to us.

The Zaheri aspect is what we would call charity. That is the external manifestation of Dasond. That is the responsibility of the Imam of the time. He is best aware of who is most deserving of the charity and hence is responsible for the disbursement of the Dasond. Once we submit Dasond we should not be concerned about how it is spent.

logical · Joined: 02 May 2003 Posts: 111

The sad story of Zakat

The Punjab minister for Zakat and Ushr, Mian Khadim Hussain Wattoo, has stated in the Punjab Assembly that around 150 cases came to the government�s notice during 2003-4 in which various chairmen of Zakat committees distributed Zakat funds among their relatives. The money thus embezzled had exceeded Rs 7 million. He said 88 cases had been registered but only two men accused of hanky-panky had been arrested and a mere Rs 88,000 recovered. Some time back, a similar round of embezzlement of Zakat funds took place in Sindh, leading to a loss of Rs 40 million.

Exploiting Islam in everyday life is rife but what we have done with the Quranic taxation of Zakat is unforgivable. The clergy obliged first by being literalist and hidebound about the uses to which Zakat could be put. That resulted in the state getting scared and deciding that money collected as Zakat had to be distributed among the needy rather than being spent on building something for the employment, education and livelihood of the poor.Thus scores of billions of rupees deducted from the savings accounts of unwilling depositors and institutions were lost every year because the Zakat committees (running into thousands) ate up the collection at the district level. Then the government, overwhelmed by corruption, stopped distribution for three years in the 1990s, but the collection never stopped and there was a Zakat mountain to disburse in 1999. Meanwhile the Supreme Court took pity on the Sunni Muslims and made the deduction voluntary as in the case of the Shias.

This notion of Zakat was rotten from the start. A sympathetic scholar, who has studied the system, comes to the conclusion that religious laws tend to remain unopposed and un-amended even when their enforcement requires amendment because the clergy is unwilling to change the status quo. In this case, the working of the Central Zakat Administration, responsible for Zakat and Ushr, has never been as transparent as required. There is a tendency to withhold the real statistics of collection and disbursement on the basis of some religious edict or the other. (A federal officer absconded to London with a billion rupees of Zakat money and it couldn�t even be disclosed). None of the �objectives� laid out in the Zakat and Ushr Ordinance 1980, like elimination of poverty and beggary, and the creation of a welfare state, were achieved, although up to three percent poverty alleviation could have been achieved in a country where 40 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.

The 1995 decision to �federalise� Zakat funds and stop disbursements for three years was based on the general perception that the system was shot through with corruption:

--The government dishonestly used the accumulated sum for other mundane purposes. Indeed, from 1995 until 1999, the governments of Pakistan used Zakat money to help solve their liquidity crisis and to help pay for �other priorities� of patronage and power.

--The situation acquired farcical dimensions when the deduction of Zakat compelled many Sunnis to declare themselves Shias so that their accounts wouldn�t be taxed. The Shias don�t pay because of the edict that �only a legitimate successor to Muhammad (peace be upon him) can collect Zakat�.

--Although Syed Sunnis pay Zakat they are not qualified to receive it on the basis of a hadith. The non-payment under affidavits of faith was so widespread that the Supreme Court of Pakistan stepped in and made exemption possible for the Sunnis also.

Under General Musharraf, the religion minister Dr Mahmud Ghazi took upon himself the role of reforming and improving the Zakat and Ushr system:

--Fifteen billion rupees had accumulated over the past years because of non-disbursement, one year normally yielding four billion rupees. He could increase the monthly payments to deserving individuals and even create small jobs for them as he declared in a TV interview.

--He wanted to carry out ijtihad to increase the rate of Ushr (this could mean imposing a 10 percent levy on irrigated lands) and then replace the planned agricultural tax with it.

--But nothing came from his efforts and he was made the butt of unseemly jokes from the clerical community that was now baying for General Musharraf�s blood because of his perceived Kemalist outlook. For all these reasons Zakat today continues to be the biggest sin of Pakistan as a religious community.

We all know that Zakat committees, like the local bodies, are nurseries where corrupt politicians in power bring up their future heirs. If there are lessons to learn about corruption one simply has to look at what the national press wrote about the dirt that flew out of the ruling party�s internecine struggle during the last local bodies� elections to get the juicy bits to suck at from offices meant for the people�s welfare.

Zakat committees are a part of this evil spoils system. This is where the first lessons of embezzlement are learnt. Later on, thanks to Zakat, we get corrupt politicians who dishonour each other through Ehtesab Bureaus. But even if we were to turn honest overnight, the interpretation we have placed on how Zakat is to be distributed will reduce the project of looking after the poor to a nullity. As things stand, disbursements can only be made to individuals and, funnily, to madrassas on the basis of a list of individual seminarians.

Hospitals are enabled to look after the poor and collect the cost from the Zakat Fund, but if a Pakistani national is not a Muslim he can�t be helped. This is how Zakat actually declassifies a full constitutional citizen of Pakistan to a lower status. And if you have fallen on bad times and you happen to be a Syed, you can�t get Zakat, while the chairman of the Zakat committee can gorge on it and hand it around to his relatives too. This is a sad story but there is nothing we Muslims can do about it unless we wake up from the unrealistic dreams of our clerics who want to dominate the world with their backward notions of governance. *

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\06\15\story_15-6-2006_pg3_1

kmaherali · Joined: 27 Mar 2003 Posts: 9913

logical · Joined: 02 May 2003 Posts: 111

Pls allow me to expand re:Ushr from the post The sad story of Zakat:

logical · Joined: 02 May 2003 Posts: 111

kinnare786 · Joined: 17 Nov 2005 Posts: 42

Does any one know the word use in Quran for Zakat?

GMR · Joined: 26 Nov 2004 Posts: 74

Az-zakah (Arabic) and Zakat (Urdu).

And we made them (descendants of Abraham) leaders, guiding by Our command, and We sent them inspiration to do good deeds, to establish regular Prayers and to practice Zakah (alms); and they constantly served us. (Holy Quran 21:73).

Establish regular prayer and give Zakah (alms); and obey Allah and His messenger. (Holy Quran 33:33).

2.5% Zakah on savings per full lunar year (in Sunni Islam)
5% Khums on savings per full lunar year (in Shia Islam); and
10% plus 2.5% (12.5%) on total income by Ismailis.

Actually 10% which Ismailis give to their Imam of the Time is called 'Ushr' as was prevalent in the time of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and 2.5% is zakat.

kmaherali · Joined: 27 Mar 2003 Posts: 9913

Virgo2 · Joined: 13 Jun 2005 Posts: 140

Tithe, Ushr, Dasond are all mentioned in the Bible, Qur'an and Ismaili Ginans. Khums is also mentioned in the Qur'an.

Ithanas are mandated to pay Ushr and Khums. Ushr is 10% and Khums is 1/5th. If you go to al-Islam.org and type in Khums and Ushr you will get the relevant information from the Ithanasheri site.

Ushr, Dasond are payable to Imam of the time and nobody else. If people decide on their own to pay to the poor or some sheikh, then they can do so but they have to also pay to the Imam of the Time. As an Ismaili one has to submit Dasond to the Imam only. In the Code of Conduct, Kazi Nauman has explained this very nicely. He refers to Zakat as the Amanat of the Imam.

He says: "...Realise the significane of the proper use of what God has entrusted with you....Those who are not convinced are the oppressors and defiers of God.....In addition to the zakat, the momins are required to pay the "khums", the one-fifth of their earnings. The Holy Quran says: Bear in mind that of whatever you earn the fifth part belongs to God, the Prophet and his relatives, the orphans, the poor and the way-farers....Imam Jafar Sadiq greetings be on him says: The Khums belongs to us, the Imams. The people have no share with us in it". The sentence "the one-fifth belongs to God means it is to be given away for the sake of God and for a reward from Him. It is meant for the Prophet in his life time and after him it is meant for the Imams from his Ahle-bait."

He further states: This "khums or the 'zakat' which God has enjoined on you to pay does not belong to you. It is not a part of your property. It is the "amanat" of God and the Prophet, in your hands. God has warned you in His holy book against the misappropriation of "amanat". He says,

O momins, do not deceive God or the Prophet, and do not mis-appropriate the "amanat" in general. You know (the consequence).

Through the Mercy of our Imam we, Ismailis, are required to pay Ushr and zakat. However, there are Ismailis who also pay Khums with the permission of the Imam.

Virgo2

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