USES OF ZAKAT FUNDS

According to the QurAn, the zakAt funds are meant for �the poor and the paupers [fuqarA and miskIn], for those in bondage and debt, and for the wayfarers.� All these are conventional recipients of charity.  The funds are also to be used for the �bureaucracy,� those who collect and administer the funds.  But two other items are also mentioned which deserve special attention.  The funds are to be used in �the service of Allah� (fIsabIli�llIAh) and for �gaining over [or reconciling, or inclining] the hearts [muallafa qulUbuhum]� to Islam (QurAn 9:60).

In the technical vocabulary of Islam, the first phrase, �in the service, or way, of Allah,� means religious warfare, or jihAd.  ZakAt funds are to be spent on buying arms, equipment, and horses.  The second phrase, �gaining over, or reconciling, hearts,� means �bribes� in unadorned language.  The faith of new converts should be strengthened with the help of generous �gifts,� and that of adversaries should be subverted by the same means.  This was an important limb of the Prophet�s religious offensive and diplomacy, and as the QurAnic verse shows, it had for the Prophet, as it still has for his followers, a heavenly sanction.

author : ram swarup