BAIT UL MAAL; A MEANS OF SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION
Let us play our part in the welfare
of society
By : Zeeshan Rasool Khan & Younus Rashid
Months
ago, organization namely ‘Who is Husseini’ made an effort under the banner of
‘Wall of Kindness’ to extend helping hand to the needy people. The effort was
unique and received acclamation throughout the valley. The entire concept was
based on the thought of hanging extra clothes to the wall so that those in need
would come and take them without compromising their dignity. This initiative
was actually imitated from cold regions of turkey and Iran where people donate
excess clothes in this manner. For quite some time it worked well, but later
on, walls were found empty. Indicating, though this concept is workable in
other parts of the world, here in the valley it could not succeed. And the
failure of this (commendable) effort proved there is a need for some other strategy
that could cater to need of the needy people in all the time.
Interestingly,
being Muslim when we go through the Islamic system of welfare, we find the idea
of ‘Bait-ul-Maal’. According to the dominant view, Bait-ul-Maal was first established
during the reign of Abu-Bakr (R.A), the first caliph of Islam. And it took real
and final shape during the caliphate of the second Caliph Hazrat Umar (R.A). Although it is an ancient idea, yet this
effective mechanism can function in every era and situation. Currently, many
Muslim populated countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Kenya, etc. have
government supported ‘Bait ul Mals’ in
place for the welfare of deprived sections of their society.
Bait
ul Maal’ covers the wider scope and refers to an institution that historically
served as a royal treasury for the caliphs and sultans, managing personal
finances and government expenditures. Further, it administered distributions of
zakat revenues for public works. However, currently, it is considered as a
charitable institution and everywhere its role is restricted to providing
assistance and charitable contributions to the public. In the existing system,
the objective of Bait-ul-Mal is the well-being of people, the economic
uplifting of weaker sections of society to end economic disparity, and
rehabilitation of sufferers.
Before
commenting about the significance of Bait ul Maal, knowing about its mode of
working is of prime importance. How ‘Bait ul Maal’ works?. During Caliphate,
different kinds of funds were being collected viz; Zakat, Jazya, etc. and these
would make a treasury of Bait ul Maal. But, in the current scenario, it is the
‘charity’ involving ‘Zakah’, ‘Sadqaat’ etc that forms the backbone of ‘Bait ul
Maal’.
It
aims at putting obligatory alms and voluntary donation collected from rich
people, into use, effectively, to ensure the well-being of society in general.
By means of ‘Bait-ul-Mal’, we can provide general services for the advancement
of economically and educationally backward citizens of society. Bait ul mal can
serve as an effective tool to eradicate poverty. By providing monthly stipends,
we can enable a poverty-stricken family to manage everyday needs covering from
food, clothing, and shelter. Under this institution, we can provide
interest-free micro-loans to empower poor and disadvantaged people to establish
their own businesses to earn the livelihood. We can assist poor students to
acquire quality education either through established institutions or by helping
them financially. We can establish small vocational institutes through
Bait-ul-Maal to equip poor youngsters with skills and encourage them for
entrepreneurship. Moreover, paupers, who fail to afford better health care, can
be provided with medical facilities.
In
our valley, the number of unmarried over-aged women is swelling and financial
insufficiency is the main reason behind their problem. However, through
‘Bait-ul-Maal’ we can provide marriage assistance and can help in giving solace
to their families. Extending financial help to poor for the marriage of girls
can also help in curbing the menace of child marriage.
Locally,
Bait-ul-Maal can contribute to various developmental programs ranging from
Health to education of people, poor in particular. We can take necessary
initiatives on a community basis to ameliorate health care and education
system, which constitute essential need of any society. In addition, by virtue
of ‘Bait-ul-Mal,’ we can take in hand micro-level public works that can prove
behooveful for masses. The beautiful aspect of this institution is that our
people would not be compelled to wander from place to place for begging and
neither their identity would be revealed publically.
Depending
upon the sources, we can extend our orbit of influence beyond community level.
We can extend the outreach of love, sympathy, and care to the maximum number of
disadvantaged people and vulnerable groups. Direct and indirect emergency aids
can be supplied to the indigents through this institution and to those affected
by natural or manmade disasters. Rehabilitation of people is also possible
through it.
To
be precise, Bait-ul-Maal has great potential to play a role in economic
development at the local level. Modern Islamic economists are of the view that
this institution is appropriate for contemporary Islamic societies and consider
it agency of minimizing unfairness between the ‘haves and the have nots’. It is
the responsibility of Ummah to establish and bolster ‘Bait-ul-Mals’ in their
respective communities, rather than adopting insubstantial approaches, so that
we will be able to make charity recipients, charity payers.
Zeeshan Rasool Khan
hails from Seer Hamdan Anantnag and writes on diverse issues .For feedback :
mohdzeeshan605@gmail.com
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