"But those among them who are well-grounded in knowledge, and the believers, believe in what has been revealed to you and what was revealed before you: And (especially) those who establish regular prayer and practise regular charity (zakat) and believe in God and in the Last Day: To them shall We soon give a great reward. (Qur'an, 4:162)

The minimum amount of alms (zakat) obligatory for a Muslim is 1/40 (2.5%) of excess personal wealth. Once collected, zakat can only be distributed to poor, needy and other rightful beneficiaries.

God Almighty is the only true sustainer of life, however God does not directly hand out sustenance to the hands of creation. Divine Will is to foster movement and activity within the creation through the search for sustenance. When we look at the natural and human domains, the main force behind activity is the need to earn one's living. However, this reason only serves as a 'bait' because, only in this way, the exhibition of God's works of art can be discovered and viewed by as many of His creatures as possible. In addition, life becomes more interesting and enjoyable for the participants. Divine Wisdom has also made us depend on each other so that human progress and development can be stimulated. Human civilisations that we have seen are a product of this dependency and struggle to earn a living. However, one consequence of this scenario is that the acquisition of wealth is gathered disproportionately by individuals.

Yet God provides enough sustenance on earth to satisfy everyone. Minimum living standards including sufficient food, clothing and shelter are the basic human rights. This rightful portion is included within the excess wealth of every one of us. Consequently, Muslims are enjoined to give alms and it is for this reason that alms or, zakat, are called the purifying alms and considered more than a charity, but rather the rightful portion of the less fortunate.

The following two attitudes are the root cause of much of the social unrest, corruption and unjust treatment of wealth and people in the world. They are:

1- "You work, I'll have it", and
2- "I don't care if you are hungry, as long as I am full".

While Islam's regulations on interest deal with the first, alms in Islam solve the second idea by fostering compassion from rich towards poor instead of exploitation and oppression, and love and respect from poor towards the rich instead of hatred.

The history of Islam shows that there were periods when poverty was totally eradicated in Muslim lands through the state administration of alms. So much so that they did not have any poor citizens to give alms to and ended up giving alms to neighbouring Christian countries. During the Ottoman reign, people would knock door to door trying to find poor to give their alms. There were alms-boxes placed in public places so that the poor would take money freely without feeling the stigma of receiving money from someone else. Some of the benefits of zakat are

• The human self (nafs) inherently wants to own and control unlimited amounts of wealth. By paying zakat a Muslim breaks this insatiable appetite for wealth. This detachment from wealth builds the spirituality of a believer.
• Through zakat a person exhibits her compassion for other less fortunate people and this in turn develops her sense of compassion and conscience. Zakat deals with the social problem of the 'don't care' attitude of the rich.
• By observing the command of God to pay zakat a Muslim acknowledges that he is not the true owner of the wealth and that he is only a temporary holder.
• A person paying zakat has a settled state of mind and conscious knowing that he has contributed positively to the lives of individuals and society as a whole.
• A person whose greed is checked through zakat works much more sensibly and in a balanced way. He has more time to control and improve his physical health, hence he is also to avoid all physical ailments associated with overwork.