Definition of Lillah, Zakaat, Sadaqah and Kaffarah
Question:-
What is Lillah, Zakaat, Sadaqah and Kaffaarah?
Answer:-
1. Lillah and Nafl Sadaqah is the same. [Re:- Fataawa Mahmoodiyyah Pg.365 Vol.14] Any amount of money, whether a little or a lot, may be given out in charity to the poor, orphans, Madrasahs, Masaajid, or in any other good cause for the pleasure of Allah Ta’ala. It is not necessary for one to own the Nisaab in this instance, rather any person may discharge Lillah or Nafl Sadaqah.
2. Zakaat is obligatory upon any male or female that possesses the Nisaab which is currently in the region of R7000.00. The first time a person receives the Nisaab in his/her life, he/she should record the Islamic date. If he/she maintains the Nisaab for the entire year, then one year later on that specific Islamic date, Zakaat will be calculated on one’s assets and the Zakaat will be discharged. This date is now stipulated as one’s Zakaat date and one will discharge Zakaat on this particular date every year. One is require to discharge 2.5% Zakaat of one’s cash, investments, savings, gold, silver, good of merchandise etc. The recipients of Zakaat are poor Muslims that do not own the Nisaab.
3. Sadaqatul Fitr is Waajib (obligatory) upon every Muslim who possesses the Nisaab, or what is equivalent to the value of Nisaab, even though a complete year has not passed over such wealth. It is discharged at the end of Ramadaan, before the Eid Salaah. One is required to discharge Sadaqatul Fitr for himself and his small children that haven’t reached puberty (if they are needy). If they possess their own wealth, then Sadaqatul Fitr may be discharged from their wealth. The recipients for Waajib Sadaqah are the same as the recipients of Zakaat.
Another form of Waajib Sadaqah is where a person takes a vow that, if a particular need of his is fulfilled, then he will give R100.00 (for example) in charity. If his need is fulfilled, then it is obligatory on him to discharge the R100.00 in charity to poor Muslims that qualify as recipients of Zakaat.
4. If a person intentionally breaks a Fardh fast during the month of Ramadaan without a valid Shari’ee excuse, either by eating or drinking, then Kaffarah becomes obligatory upon him. Similarly, if one engages in sexual relations whilst fasting in the month of Ramadaan, then Kaffarah will become obligatory.
A person will be required to keep sixty fasts consecutively, together with the broken fast/s. If he misses any fast whilst keeping the sixty fasts, then he will have to start keeping the sixty fasts again. Similarly, the day of Eid-ul-Fitr or the days of Eid-ul-Adha should not fall during the period when the sixty fasts are being kept. This is referred to as Kaffarah.
In fact, for breaking a fast (as explained above), one is required to free a slave. However, slavery does not exist in our times, hence a person will be required to keep sixty fasts. If one is unable to keep the sixty fasts then he should feed sixty poor people by providing them with approximately 1.6 kg (half Saa’a) of wheat each, or provide two meals for them (morning and evening). [Re:- Tahmaratun Najaah Pg.592]
We hope that the above explanation suffices in explaining the various terminologies.
ALLAH TA’ALA KNOWS BEST!
ANSWERED BY:
Mufti Mohammed Desai
Date: 14 Rabi-ul-Aakhir 1444 / 09 November 2022