Sadaqat-ul-Fitr fixed at Rs 65 per person, announces Grand Mufti Nasir-ul-Islam

Asif Iqbal

Srinagar, Apr 1: Sadaqat-ul-Fitr, also known as Zakat-ul-Fitr, amount has been fixed at Rs 65 per person, Jammu and Kashmir Grand Mufti Nasir-ul lslam announced on Saturday – asking Muslims to pay it before prayers of Eid-ul-Fitr.

Talking to GNS, the Grand Mufti said that Sadaqat-ul-Fitr is a duty required of every Muslim and becomes obligatory to pay it before the beginning of Eid prayer and could be given from the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan.

Mufti Nasir-ul Islam said that it is Wajib (mandatory) upon such a person who owns assets, which equal the value of the Nisab.

"The owner of Nisab in the ruling as regards Sadaqat-al-fitr is such a person who has 7 1/2 Tola gold (93 grams 312 milligrams) or 52 1/2 Tola silver (653 grams 184 milligrams), or any other form of asset. Each person should give away in charity an amount equivalent to 1.760 kilograms of wheat," he added.

He said the main purpose of Zakat al-Fitr is to provide the poor with a means with which they can celebrate the festival Eid al-Fitr along with the rest of the Muslims.

The amount, Islam said, has been fixed after due consensus with prominent scholars of all schools of thought from both Kashmir and Jammu regions, which according to him included; Chairman Mutahida Majlis-e-Ulema (MMU) Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Chief Rector of Darul Uloom Raheemiya Bandipora, Moulana Rehmatullah Qasmi, Sheikh-ul-Hadith Mufti Nazir Ahmed Qasmi, Sheikh-ul-Hadith Mufti Muzaffar Qasmi, Mufti Abdur Raheem via Baramulla. Hazrat Naqshband Sahab (RA) shrine Khateeb Prof Muhammad Tayib Kamili, Chairman Karwani-e-Islami Ghulam Rasool Hami, from Sautul Awliya Fayaz Ahmed Rizvi, Shia Scholars Aga Syed Al Hassan Mosvi, Aga Syed Haadi and Masoor Abbas Ansari, Muhammad Yaseen Kirmani, Gen Sec Muslim Personal Law Board, Mufti Himayon, Shabir Ahmed Geelani, Abdur Hameed Nayeemi, Moulana Younus and Abdur Rehman Ashrafi from Qazigund. From Jammu, Ulema’s who were part of the consensus include Mufti Nazir Ahmed, Mufti Shabir Ahmed Noori, Qari Ali Hussain, Haji Muhammad Shafi Nasri, Mufti Liaquat Ali Rajouri, Master Ashraf from Kathua, Moulana Muzaffar Hussian Rizvi from Jammu, Moulana Shafi Rizvi from Samba, Mufti Muhammad Iqbal from Poonch, Hafiz Syed Yasir from Udhampur, Bashir Ahmed Qadri and Reasi and Haji Muhammad Tariq from Jammu.

Quoting Hadith (saying of Prophet Muhammad SAW), he said: "Every Muslim is required to pay Zakat-ul-Fitr at the conclusion of the month of Ramadan as a token of thankfulness to Allah for having enabled him or her to observe the obligatory fast."

Quoting another Hadith, Islam said that, “Every Muslim is required to pay Sadaqat-ul-Fitr at the conclusion of the month of Ramadan as a token of thankfulness to Allah for having enabled him or her to observe the obligatory fast. Its purpose is, as a levy on the fasting person. The fasting in the month of fasting will be hanging between earth and heavens and it will not be raised up to the Divine Presence without paying the Fitr amount.”

"There is no harm for any person who is wealthier and wants to pay more than Rs 65 per person as fixed for this year," he said. The Grand Mufti appealed to people to pay Sadaqat-ul-Fitr earlier so that it reaches the deserving persons.

Asking the people to pay the Sadaqat-ul-Fitr to downtrodden, poor, destitute, orphans, homeless, Mufti at the same time strictly asked people not to give it to Mosques, Shrines, Khanqahas, any religious organization or any political or semi-political organization.

Islam remarked that the Fitr amount should reach the deserving people ahead of Eid so that they too can celebrate the festival along with other people. (GNS)