Zakat Fitrah

Eid Mubarak

Berlalu la sudah Ramadhan,

Sebulan berpuasa,

Tiba Syawal kita raikan,

Dengan Rasa Gembira.

Today is the first of Syawal. Today, the third baby turns 45 days.

I did not make any preparation. No new clothes except for the boys as they can no longer fit their baju Melayu. No baking, if any would be done may be later of the month. Did I even get pahala bonus during the lailatul qadar? I only have heavy heart living the holy month of Ramadhan and I pray I will be given the opportunity to perform better in next Ramadhan if there is next Ramadhan for me.

Truthfully, this year's celebration is not much of a celebration with the war going at Palestine and the brought down of MH17, both happened in the holy month of Ramadhan. Not to forget the earlier incident of MH 370, the never ending kidnappings at East Coast Sabah and many shrinking 'tongkang' departing the peninsular to neighboring country (ironically for celebration of the month of Ramadhan and Syawal).

The holy month of Ramadhan marks the performing of third pillar in Islam which is fasting and followed by performing Zakat Fitrah.

Definition of Zakat Fitrah:

Religious tax/alms/zakat paid on the day when Muslims break the fasting period at the end of the month of Ramadhan. This alms is known as Zakat al-Fitrah

(islamicnet.com)

Zakat dari segi syarak pula ialah mengeluarkan sebahagian harta tertentu diberikan kepada asnaf-asnaf yang berhak menerimanya setelah memenuhi syarat-syarat yang ditetapkan oleh syarak apabila terbenam matahari akhir Ramadhan sehingga terbit matahari esoknya.

 Syarak defines Zakat as giving part of certain wealth to asnaf who are qualified upon fulfilling Syarak conditions when the sun set at the eve of end Ramaadhan untill the rise of sun on the following day.

(Lembaga Zakat Selangor)

Zakat dari segi istilah fiqh bererti "Sejumlah harta tertentu yang diwajibkan Allah diserahkan kepada orang-orang berhak"

Zakat fitrah itu wajib dengan sebab lebaran pada bulan Ramadhan

 Fiqh defines Zakat as "An obligatory act (wajib) to give a part of certain wealth to the deserving"

Zakat fitrah is obligatory because eid at the end of Ramadhan

(Hukum Zakat, Dr. Yusuf Qardawi)

There are twenty seven verses in the Quran paired second pillar in Islam, perform five daily prayers with Zakat:

                                    

Waakimusolaata Waatuzzakaat

And perform As-solat and give zakat

Dan dirikan solat, dan tunaikan zakat

Giving zakat, the fourth pillar of Islam. The act of giving in the name of Allah is like a seed which grows seven spikes, in each spike is a hundred grains (2:261). It is a fact that the act of giving will make one becomes wealthier.

OPR, BLR and BFR

On the 17th July 2014, the Bank Negara of Malaysia (BNM) has finally made a move to revised the overnight policy rate (OPR), hence changing the  base lending rate (BLR) to 6.85% from 6.6%. The last revision was made in 2012. The BLR changes made by the BNM for the past 25 years could be refer to the graph below BLR (1989 - 2014) by BNM.

 

As shown in the graph, the rates was highest at 10.50% in 1998 due to recession (it actually peaked at 12.27%). There are some years where changes are made up to 3 times a year, however the graph reflect only the percentage that was used most for the year.

The changes of OPR caused uncertainty to the final lent amount. In the event of base financing rate (BFR) i.e. Islamic financing, the final amount will not exceed the final agreed amount financed. The BFR will definitely change upon any amendment to the OPR, however the uncertainty of final amount to be paid is not an issue.

Lost and Found

My previous post on books is based on borrowed books from the library which I belong to for the past one decade. During those period I did not encounter any problem with the library. However things took turn when I failed to return a book. I have lost it. Since I never sees it, I didn't take any action to rectify the matter.

I did consider to purchase another as replacement but I never get around to actually buy one. The most disappointing part is, I didn't get a chance to read it before its disappearance. Sadly, I have not been to the library since then. I no longer have access to the books that are on my 'to read list'.

When hubby and myself rearrange the furniture before the arrival of our bundle of joy, we found the book sandwiched between the bed mattress and its bottom frame. I read books before going to sleep, but how it managed to sneak underneath? Still remains a mystery to me.

Till today, I still have the book. I have finished reading it but the book is yet to be returned. I called the library to inquire on the possibility of purchasing the book instead of return it to the library. I was told that I still need to pay the fines (20
¢ /day) on top of the book price.

If I took the inisiative to call the library the moment I feels that it would be sometime before I found the book, I could have purchase it from the library instead of paying the fines. Now instead of having a book I still have to pay the fines.

If I were to reflect on those one decade or more, I would say I have got my money back as this is the first occurance ever. All the books I managed to read during those years should be able to cover the fines which I estimated at about less than RM 30.00. The book retail value is at RM 39.90.

If it were a book that I bought, I would not mind having it disappear before having it resurface few years later.

Well, it kind of making me value books more in future if there is any lesson I learnt from all of this.