No fewer than 62 indigent Muslims were given a total of N7.5 million Zakat in Ibadan to reduce poverty among the Muslim community in the area and Nigeria in general.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that Zakat is one of the five pillars of Islam mandatory to be paid once in a year by wealthy Muslims.
Zakat, thereafter, is shared to the less privileged Muslims in the society.
The Coordinator of the Zakat distribution, Ahaji Ismail Saka, said the N7.5 million was given to him to be shared to needy Muslims by someone who didn’t want his identity disclosed.
Saka said that the donor in the last four years had been given him Zakat as trust to be shared to the needy Muslims in the society.
According to him, the donor doesn’t want any appreciation or to know the beneficiaries but expecting abundant reward from Allah.
He added that a lot of people in the society were facing one challenge or the other due to the current economic hardship in the country and were in dire need of the Zakat.
The coordinator said that the committee in charge of the Zakat distribution categorised the beneficiaries into three – the widows, students and others needing assistance in the society.
“We may not be perfect in the distribution, because only God is perfect, so the 62 Zakat beneficiaries will receive between N100,000 and N125,000 each,” he said.
Meanwhile, the guest lecturer at the occasion, former Chairman Shariah Savings Scheme, Alhaji AbdulWasiu Salawudeen, advised wealthy Muslims to always pay Zakat in order to purify their wealth.
Salawudeen said that the essence of Zakat distribution was to reduce poverty among the Muslims in the society.
According to him, poverty is rampant among Muslims due to non-payment of Zakat by wealthy Muslims.
“Payment of Zakat will purity your wealth, cleanse your heart from greed, misery and help the suffering masses,” he said.
Similarly, the Chairman of the occasion, Dr Bashir Olanrewaju, called on the beneficiaries to invest the money for it to multiply and for them to be givers of Zakat in future.
Olanrewaju urged the beneficiaries to think of a business and not spend the money on feeding so as to be independent. (NAN)
