Read on Twitter
Giving zakat (Islamic charity-levy of 2.5% on wealth) is way, way more spiritually demanding once you start saving money to try to have a house one day inshaAllah...
I know this is obvious but I’ve never experienced that sort of difficulty in giving away a minute percentage of my money before. SubhanAllah. It’s amazing how much miserliness middle-class aspirations engender. I never knew.
Then I encounter my parents who, when I asked them to estimate the value of the gold jewellery they gave me, said incredulously, “Why are you calculating? Just give away a lump sum that errs on the side of caution so that you know you don’t under-give.” I felt quite ashamed.
The other thing I realised is that it forces you to have a (weird) form of effective altruism because you can’t just give it to anybody. You have to think about whether your zakat is actually going to reach the poor/indebted/refugees etc. Not just to random good causes.
If I were to change anything, it would be that next year inshaAllah (or in giving charity in general) I would try to find people I knew in my local community. I think that’s important too. Not that international causes aren’t important, but so is genteel poverty.
I may delete this thread because I don’t want to be subtly bragging about giving zakat (God protect us from secret arrogance), but I feel like zakat has become the most thought provoking and spiritually demanding thing I’ve ever done. I didn’t expect that.
