Simple Zakat Guide explains the rules and the reasons of Zakat, with step-by-step worksheets provided for every section.
Topics include everything from Zakat-liable assets, expense deductions, 401k and other retirement accounts, how to account for haram earnings, and how to calculate nisab, in addition to the basics of Islamic charitable ethics. This second edition contains additional information about HSA and FSA accounts.
Why This Book Exists
Because the classical texts address camels, silver and agricultural produce, and the person reading them owns a 401k, a mortgage, an HSA and some stock options.
The principles have not changed; the assets have. A Muslim in America genuinely cannot work out what he owes from a general treatment, and the usual result is that he estimates, guesses high or low, and never quite settles the question.
What the Worksheets Do
They turn it into arithmetic. Rather than explaining a rule and leaving the reader to apply it, each section gives him the calculation with his own figures — which is the difference between understanding Zakat and having paid it correctly.
This is the book's real contribution and the reason it gets recommended: it is an accessible middle ground between a scholarly treatise and a one-page summary that answers nothing.
Who Needs It
Anyone with a retirement account, a business, investments, or debt — which is to say most working Muslims in the West. Also imams and community workers who are asked these questions every Ramadan.
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