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This is a quick update from my newsletter article on Yaqeen Institute. The organization has modified its stance on Zakat, which is worth noting to readers. As I had written last year, Yaqeen has a somewhat tortured history with Zakat. Initially, they accepted and encouraged Zakat but did nothing different with it except commit to not saving the funds over the long term and using the money for its mission immediately. As best as I can tell, this was not based on anything in Islam or from Islamic scholars; it’s just something they did.
The organization then removed the separate zakat donation button, claiming they do not solicit zakat, followed by a solicitation of zakat by highlighting the opinion of Hatem Al-Haj. Al-Haj takes the rather extreme view that virtually anything is zakat eligible.
The evolution has continued now, where they point to differing opinions, highlight the opinion of Al-Haj, but then also say they say:
Yaqeen is not soliciting Zakat at this time, and asking donors to give their Zakat to humanitarian aid while continuing to make use of their Sadaqa to sponsor the work of Yaqeen and other worthy non-profit organizations.
At least on the zakat front, this is fine. I am sure Dr. Omar Suleiman, the CEO of Yaqeen, has his reasons for continuing to highlight the opinion of Dr. Al-Haj over other scholars of Islam with different opinions. While I don’t use this newsletter to discuss the rightness or wrongness of fiqh, Al-Haj’s view tends to be overly solicitous towards all nonprofits. It has the economic effect of advocating for a regressive zakat culture that does not care much about the poor and the needy, even if that is not his intent.
Yaqeen is right to ask donors to give their zakat to humanitarian organizations while giving sadaqah to other worthy organizations. If, during the month of Ramadan, you are only giving zakat as charity, you are doing it wrong.
I hope Yaqeen, as a wildly successful Muslim nonprofit that never needed zakat to grow and be even more successful, can be an example for other Muslim nonprofits.
Most Muslim organizations don’t need zakat
Muslim nonprofits do not need to solicit zakat to be successful. Yaqeen’s example at least on this score, is beautiful and should be replicated by other educational, dawa, and advocacy groups. Nonprofits normally don’t know how to tell supporters to give their money to other organizations. Yaqeen can show them how. We need to eradicate the notion that you can give zakat to whatever you think is good.
Muslims that work at nonprofits need to be wary of collecting zakat if they have only a dodgy explanation for why they are doing it. If you are not eligible for zakat, maybe you should not use it to buy groceries for your family. Get out of the zakat solicitation business unless you are confident you belong there.
To keep up with Muslim leadership and nonprofits, subscribe to this newsletter. For tomorrow (Monday), I am preparing an article on Islamic Relief’s new zakat policy.
While it’s nice there’s not another black hole sucking up zakat from American Muslims, did they explain why they stopped taking it? If they believe themselves to have been not eligible, did they apologize or offer guidance to donors on what to do if they gave zakat to a non-eligible party? The bar is unbelievably low for American muslims and what they demand of their institutions and one another.
The caliph Umar bin 'Abdul 'Aziz once said:
"If you see me deviating from the right path, grab me from my collar and shake me violently and say:
O Umar, fear Allah for you will die one day!”
Its great that Yaqeen is coming around and is moving in the right direction. Compared to others, they are taking the higher road. May they be a continue to improve in transparency and serve as a role model for other organizations.