| Economic Empowerment Project: using Zakat money | |
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Before going through further details of the proposal, I urge the reader to go through Letter and Spirit of Zakat (Zakah), Part-1 and Part-2, and other related articles.
Project Stage-1: Giving zakat money to Fuqara and Masakeen (categories 1 and 2), i.e. give only as much amount that keeps the recipient's wealth within the prescribed limit of Nasb (nisab). Individual recipients will be made to OWN the amount or the business established (tools purchased for this purpose) out of this amount. Purpose: empower a poor economically instead of just making him/ her meet his/ her basic needs. It will be ensured that minimum amount is spent on category-3 (employees) - this is one area in which we have proved our expertise (almost all the projects are run with ZERO overhead expense) Project Stage-2: Once the system is well-established and has received the approval of participants, when our own learning curve reaches a desirable confidence level, zakat money will be used in the way of Allah (for "Allah's Cause" of category-7) with its extended meaning explained by Yousuf Al Qardawi, Dr. Israr Ahmad, Syed Abul A'ala Maududi, etc. In the mean time opinion is being sought from ulemas, brothers are being encouraged to go through the process of Jihad-an-nafs and prepare themselves for undertaking this stage. "Have you seen him who denies Our religion? It is he who harshly repels the orphan and does not urge others to feed the needy. Woe to those who pray but are heedless of their prayers; who put on a show of piety but refuse to give even the smallest help to others." [Surah Al-Maun (Small Kindness), Chapter 107: Verses 1-7] Implementation Mechanism: 1. Proposals will be invited from (a) individual active members* and (b) chapters, for adoption of a village, mohalla, Qasba or city.
Votes: The proposal submitted here will be able to satisfy 83% of voters. 2. Proposal will be considered only when an undertaking is submitted (along with the proposal) to assume full responsibility of the complete process depicting readiness to accept total accountability. 3. Proposal will be circulated in the yahoogroup for discussion. The decision to approve or reject the proposal will be taken by the moderators, or by a committee of active members formed for this purpose. 4. The proposal should be supported by a survey of people in adpoted village, mohalla, Qasba or city identifying the deserving candidates and their interest areas, finding out feasible projects for them depending upon their own interest levels, capabilities, available infrastructure and support mechanism.
Vote: Possible Business with Zakat Money 5. The proposal should include details of the monitoring, follow-up and support mechanisms for the project. It should also include list of volunteers (with description of their abilities) proposed to be assigned these tasks and any remunerations to be paid to them for these purposes, etc.
Vote: Educational Empowerment using Zakat or non-Zakat money 6. If there are more than one village, mohalla, Qasba or city nominated by people, along with their concrete plans, we will have a discussion on them. After discussions, moderators or a committee appointed by them for the purpose will choose one (or more than one) from those proposals.
7. The group will be kept abreast with every stage of project implementation to maintain transparency in operations and to get maximum assistance from members willing and capable to do so. 8. Local Chapter representatives will have overall responsibility to facilitate monitoring, follow-up developing of support mechanisms. Group members willing to audit the process will be allowed to do so by the local chapter who will provide all the necessary help required. Visiting members will be encouraged to participate in this process as much as they can. Only a spirit of cooperation and collaboration can turn the dream of economic empowerment into a reality. * Active members are defined as: those from among the members of Bihar Anjuman who have already demonstrated their sincerity by fulfilling responsibilities undertaken by themselves, for BA, or assigned to them by a chapter Shikwa-e-zulmat-e-shab
se to kahin behtar tha;
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