Zakat On Deposits

Question:
Is the deposit one pays when renting out a house liable for zakat? In
the UK landlords are known for stealing deposits, so it is highly
likely that it may never return into one's possession. Also whatis the
ruling about entering into such a contract with a landlord involving a
deposit, when one does not know with any certainty whetherthis money
will ever be returned?
Answer:
In the name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful,
One must always remember that paying zakat from any given wealth is
the responsibility of the owner of that wealth (malik), and not the
responsibility of the one to whom it is given for a specific duration.
It is stated in al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya :
�(From the conditions for the obligation of Zakat is having complete
control over the wealth), and that is to have ownership and
possession. If one has ownership of the wealth and not possession�or
possession and not ownership�, then zakat will not be obligatory�As
far as the commodity that has not yet been deliveredis concerned�.it
will be part of the Nisab hence zakat will be obligatory on it
according to the correct opinion.� (al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya, 1/172)
The above text implies that both ownership and possession are
necessary in order for zakat to be obligatory. The latter part of the
above-mentioned text (concerning the commodity) implies that physical
possession is not a necessary requirement for the obligation of
zakat;rather, if one has full control over the wealth and it is
redeemable whenever one desires, then this will be considered
sufficient.
In light of the above explanation, there are three scenarios with
regards to the obligation of zakat on money that is deposited when
purchasing something or when renting a property:
1) If the deposit is part of the total cost paid towards the purchase
of an item or towards the rent of a property, then the depositor is
not responsible for paying zakat from it. The one to whom it is
deposited will be responsible to pay its zakat. The reason is quite
obvious, in that the depositor no longer remains the owner of this
wealth; rather, it has now come into the ownership of the one to whom
it is deposited.
2) If the deposited money is merely given as a trust on the condition
and understanding that it will be returned, then paying zakat from it
will be the responsibility of the one depositing it. The reason being
is that zakat is the responsibility of the one who owns the wealth,
andthe one who deposits the money here is considered to be the owner
of the deposited wealth. As far aspossession over this money is
concerned, as explained earlier, as long as one has control over this
wealth one will be considered to have possession. Thus, both ownership
and possessionare found on the money that is deposited; hence, the
depositor will be liableto pay zakat.
3) If the deposit cannot bewithdrawn over a specific period, then the
ruling concerning it is similar to that of other loans given for a
specific period, or it issimilar to giving an item as security (rahn).
The Hanafi jurists (fuqaha) have categorized loans into three types.
Without going into the details, the crux of the ruling is that, itis
preferable to include themoney in one�s total possessions and pay
zakatfrom it annually. However,payment of zakat will not be obligatory
until the debt is recovered, but when it is received, zakat for the
previous years will also have to be paid. Similarly, if a zakat-able
item was given as security, zakat will not be obligatory annually, but
when the item is redeemed, zakat for the previous years will have to
be paid.
In conclusion, zakat is obligatory on the individual who is the owner
of the wealth. Thus,if the depositor is still considered to be the
owner of the wealth that is deposited, he/she will be responsible to
pay zakat from it.
As far as your query concerning the permissibility of deposits is
concerned, this has beenanswered in an earlier answer. Please search
the archives on www.SunniPath.com
And Allah knows best/

How do We Attain Knowledge?

There are three issues which people frequently mix up when trying to answer this question. I hope the reader will distinguish between them:What is the source of knowledge? What are the means by which knowledge is acquired? And what is the method which must be followed toacquire knowledge? The source of knowledge is, as the name indicates, the place where knowledge may be found. The means are abilities and instruments which Allah has placed at our disposal for acquiring knowledge from its source. The sources of knowledge for aMuslim are existence and revelation. Its means are the senses and the mind. As for the method, it variesaccording to the type of knowledge and its source. It is a mistake, then, for us to say - as do some religiously minded people - that the sources of knowledge or its means are the senses and revelation, or that the scientific method is restricted to empirical sciences.
The Means of Acquiring Knowledge
The verse mentioned earlier establishes that thehuman being is born ignorant, and that Allah, the Exalted, provides him with hearing, vision and intellect. This makes it clear that it is not possible for a human being to acquire knowledge-whether it is religious or worldly-except by way of the senses or the intellect. Why do I say the senses when the verse only mentions hearing and sight? Because the other senses are mentioned in other verses. This verse singles them out for mention because they are the most important sensesfor acquiring information.
The senses are - as is well-known - connected tothe brain and, by way of it,to the mind. The mind is what coverts the material arriving through the senses into things that have meaning for the person. The sense which is most closely affiliated withthe intellect is hearing. A person hears sounds arising from natural thingslike thunder, wind, birds, animals and insects, but healso hears speech, which issounds that indicate meanings. Hearing is usually referred to in the Noble Quran to mean this second aspect. The one who doesn’t understand speech or benefit from it iscompared by the Quran to an animal which hears nothing more of speech that its sounds. Speech is affiliated with intellect in another way, that is, somespeech is true and some is false, and there is no way to distinguish the true from the false by the senses alone; logic must be applied as well. It determines whether the speech is internally contradictory or consistent.
If it finds it contradictingitself it rules that it is false.If it finds it internally consistent it examines the meaning: is it in accordance with the reality it refers to or not? Deciding whether there is accord or disparity might be a simple operation. If, for instance, someone says“The sun has risen,” all oneneeds to do is look up. If you see the sun, you judgethe statement to be true, and if you can’t see it, you judge it to be false. Judging the truth or falsehood of a statement may, however, be a long, complex operation, such as confirming the authenticity of a scientific theory like Relativity./

The Theory of Knowledge

Perhaps the central preoccupation of philosophy is with questions connected with knowledge, the answers to which are called “the theory of knowledge.” Themost important questions asked in this area may be: What is the definition of knowledge? Is knowledge possible? Is there some knowledge which precedes birth, or is a babyborn like a blank slate? How do we know?
What is Knowledge?
It appears from certain Quranic verses that Islam supports the view that knowledge is a statement or a concept that corresponds with reality. Some Arabs used to believe that an intelligent man had two hearts. One might, if he got angry at his wife, tell her, “You are like my mother.” He wouldthen consider her as such and would not treat her the way one treats one’s wife. Another of them would adopt someone else’s son or daughter and attribute the child to himself, as if he were the biological father, just as people do now in the West. Allah declared all of these claims to be nothingmore than words in contradiction to reality. The Exalted said:
“Allah has not assigned unto any man two hearts within his body, nor has He made your wives whom you declare(to be your mothers) your mothers, nor has Hemade those whom you claim (to be your sons) your sons. These are justwords from your mouths. But Allah says the truth and He shows the way.” 1
Is Knowledge Possible?
If we take this question literally, we find it contradictory, because when a person asks about the possibility of knowledge it presupposes that he knows what knowledge is, and if he knows what knowledge is,then he knows something.However the point of the question is: how can we know if what we believe to be real actually corresponds with reality and is not merely imagination or delusion? The Noble Quran indicates that knowledge is possibleand that it is one of the blessings of Allah which requires gratitude.
Allah the Exalted said:
“Allah brings you forth from the wombs of your mothers knowing nothing, and gives you hearing and sight and hearts that you might give thanks.” 2
Is There a Knowledge Which Precedes Birth?
The above-mentioned verse is definitive in answering this question inthe negative. Knowledge, then, is acquired entirely after birth. But does this mean that the mind is a blank slate upon which the senses write what they want? No! We read ina h adeeth of the Prophet (pbuh), “ Every child is born with a pristine nature(fi t rah); then his parents make him a Jew or a Christian or a Magian. ” 3
This h adeeth indicates that although the human being is born knowing nothing, he is not born with an empty mind; rather, in this mind are theseeds of knowledge whichwill grow as he grows andreach completion with his maturity. However this knowledge, which is originally planted in each human being, may be overridden by external factors, even if they don’t have the power to completely extinguish it.
What is this knowledge whose seeds are implanted in the fitrah of ahuman being? The h adeeth treats fi t rah as being something different from Judaism, Christianity or Zoroastrianism, which means the fi t rah is Islam. Obviously the meaning is not that a person after thedevelopment of his mind finds himself knowledgeable about the details of the Islamic religion. Rather, two things are meant; first, each person is born with the seed of taw h eed in hismind, that is, the affirmation that no god deserves worship except the sole Creator.
Second, this person is born with a nature which is not suited to beliefs and conduct other than the realities and laws brought by Islam. For that reason Allah described the religion which he revealedto His Messenger (pbuh) asbeing the pristine nature on which Allah created His servants. Allah the Exalted said:
“So set your face for the religion as one by natureupright – the pristine nature (framed) by Allah on which He has created man. There is no altering(the laws of) Allah’s creation. That is the right religion, but most people do not know.” 4
When a person’s mind and disposition are designed so that nothing but the realities and laws of Islam suit them, he will feel no contentment or spiritual peace unless he has surrendered himself tobe a worshipper of Allah.
“Those who believe and whose hearts feel content with the remembrance of Allah. Verily in the remembrance of Allah dohearts find rest.”

the answers of philosophy

Perhaps the only thing that philosophers have in common is the problems they grapple with, not the solutions they propose. So it is a mistake to ask aboutthe answers of philosophy to a given question, since the number of answers may equal the number of philosophers, or at least the number of schools of philosophy.
Therefore, true Muslim philosophy - if one must ascribe philosophy to Islam - consists of the answers we find in the primary sources of Islam, the Quran and the Sunnah,to those philosophic questions. A true Muslim philosopher is, then, one who relies in his philosophical answers upon those sources. He dives deep into the texts of the Quran and Sunnah, searching for those answers. He ponders their meanings, explains them, defends them and argues with those who dispute them using a style of reasoning and language understandable to the people of his era.
The sources of the Islamic philosophy are not,then, the writings of thosethinkers who have become famous under the label of “Muslim philosophers”, such as Al-Kindi, Al-Faraabi and IbnSina (Avicenna), because they took many of their axioms from Greek philosophy, even if they sometimes - by virtue of their Islamic cultural environment - contradicted it, even in certain fundamentals.
The true representativesof authentic Islamic thought were the scholars and jurists with deep knowledge of the Quran, Sunnah, and the statements of the earliest generations of Muslims, the Salaf . They were the staunchest opponents of the philosophers because of what they perceived in their thinking that contradicted what they knew to be Islamic realities established in the Quran, Sunnah and statements of the Salaf .
Philosophy in their time was synonymous with the thinking derived from the norms of polytheistic Greek thought. We find in the writings of Muslim scholars condemnation of it and advice to the peopleto stay away from it. However, if we employ a more general understanding of the term‘philosophy’ to mean the attempt to answer the fundamental questions associated with existence, the mind, morals and knowledge, I see no harm in calling the Islamic answers to these fundamental issues “Islamic philosophy”, as there is no point in arguing about words as long as their meanings areclear.
The following is a brief exposition of some of those answers, which I have condensed from various writings and lectures I have delivered on different occasions through the years. I prepared it in response to repeated requests to discuss the Islamic view onphilosophy. It is a difficult subject to treat adequatelyin a single one-hour lecture, but as our scholarsused to say, ‘That which cannot be fully achieved should not be fully abandoned.’