PRIME Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim wants all Muslims to fully embrace the practice of donating to Zakat as it is an obligatory facet of the charitable element in Islam.
He called on the administrators of Zakat funds to give renewed impetus and drive in the collections while understanding the idealism behind the practice.
"Muslims have gone to war over disputes on paying zakat. It underscores our faith to aid the poor and the needy," he said at the International Zakat Conference in Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) in Penang today.
He said that zakat can help fund efforts to totally eradicate poverty if every Muslim is compelled to donate consistently.
Also, those managing the funds must realise the importance of meeting the idealism of Zakat, which is to aid the poor.
"It must be managed well. It must be par excellence. We know what needs to be done and we must do it,” he told zakat administrators at the event.
Anwar also called for the poor to be given the aid and support to be able to compete amid the rising demands for meritocracy.
"There must be a conscious effort to help the groups that cannot compete, like the poor. The tyranny of using the same standards of meritocracy for all groups must stop."
Anwar, who is the finance minister, said that Zakat funds must be designed to aid each specific group that is lagging, before meritocracy is imposed.
It cannot be a level playing field, he stressed.
Zakat must be disbursed to those who need it to survive and those who can use it to reduce the gap between the rich and the stragglers.
Zakat is not just an economic and social agenda, but also an Islamic spiritual agenda, he said.
Anwar also declared that this year the government will focus on upgrading staff quarters of key enforcement officers such as from the police, customs, and the immigration – The Vibes, February 16, 2024.
