this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2023
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Ex-muslim here. I am not practicing most of its rituals other than zakat, as I feel like its one of those act that transcends any beliefs.
What is zakat?
Not OP and not a Muslim but it seems it’s a ‘commandment’ on charity to the poor.
Ty!
Every year, out of all of your things that are not necessary like jewelery/saving or other non essential items, you are supposed to donate 2.5% of it, or equivalent in money, to a poor person.
Interestingly this would mean that a true muslim will probably never become a multi-billionaire.
If the amount is 2.5 %/yr of non-essentials, there is still lots of ways one could make money significantly faster with a good business strategy and lots of luck, and have a probability of eventually reaching a net worth in the billions. However, there's a difference between following the letter of the “law” and its spirit.
Jews call that sadaka. it's one of the ideas I remember fondly from my early years
IMO, the rule that meat must be tayyib is the best part of the quran, and it's the part that almost all Muslims know nothing about. They all know that meat must be halal, but they never know tayyib. Halal has even disintegrated into playing creepy prayers on repeat over a loudspeaker at the slaughterhouse or etching a payer into the side of the blades in the machine. Crazy how far from the original text selfishness and capitalistic greed can take people.
I read about it once and thought why couldn't I give back at least as much, even without religious justification. Perhaps ironically in this context, part of the amount goes to my local atheist charity.