Zakat foundation disburses N3.5m, inaugurates borehole in Oyo

THE Zakat and Sadaqat Foundation (ZSF) has distributed the sum of N3 million as zakat to 54 needy Nigerians from across Oyo State.

The foundation also disbursed the sum of N500,000 as “special palliative” to elderly citizens and Muslim teachers in private schools in the state to limit the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on them.

A highlight of this year’s event was the inauguration of a borehole donated to Idi Osan community in Iwo Road, Ibadan, which was donated through ZSF by Mr Muhammad Hassan, an Egyptian.

The state coordinator of the foundation, Dr Nafiu Musa, at the distribution ceremony, the eighth in the series of the annual event, held on Sunday in Ibadan, reiterated the commitment of the foundation to making life comfortable for members of the Muslim ummah.

The event, which was chaired by Dr Alimi Sarafadeen, an entrepreneur, was attended by the foundation’s Executive Director, Prince Sulayman Olagunju, and the Operations Manager, Alhaji Ma’ruf Ahmad.

Other prominent Muslim personalities that graced the occasion included the Chief Imam of Ibadanland, Sheikh AAbdul-Ganiyy Abubakri Agbotomokekere, who was represented by Sheikh Ahmad Gbamolada; former Executive Secretary of the Muslim Ummah of South West Nigeria (MUSWEN), Professor Dawud Noibi, and the Chief Imam of Fountain University, Osogbo, Imam Sirajudeen Barkin.

Dr Musa said the ZSF would remain steadfast in its duty of helping the rich to enrich the poor and prosecuting programmes and projects that are beneficial to humanity.

According to him, the foundation was established in 2000 to reawaken the consciousness of Muslims about the institution of zakat and lift members of the ummah out of poverty.

He commended the donors of the zakat funds for keeping faith with the foundation despite the challenges, economic and otherwise, posed by the coronavirus pandemic.

The guest lecturer, Ustadh Rashid Haashim, director, Muflihun High School, Ibadan, described zakat, a pillar of Islam, as a divine arrangement for the redistribution of wealth and eradication of poverty among Muslims.

The cleric, who explained the importance of zakat for the payers, the receivers and the ummah in general, urged wealthy Muslims who have the habit of serially going to hajj to have a rethink and deploy their riches to help indigent Muslims through zakat.

The foundation’s executive director, Prince Sulayman Olagunju, in a remark, expressed gratitude to Allah for making it possible for the foundation to mobilise as much as N320 million zakat despite 2020 being “a COVID-19 year.”

He said: “In spite of almost five months of lockdown with little or no activities, the limited number of zakat payers responded beyond the foundation’s expectations. We pray Allah to continue to assist them.

“We started the zakat disbursement two weeks ago in Osun State. We have done the disbursement in Kwara and Ogun states as well. In all these states, there were remarkable improvements in the amounts of zakat disbursed because people are becoming more knowledgeable about zakat.

“However, despite these improvements, it must be noted that we still have a long way to go. Zakat, by design, is a poverty eradication system in a society where it is taken seriously as it should, and this is our appeal.”

Professor Dawud Noibi, described the event as a very memorable one “in the sense that it further reminds us of the great work that the Zakat and Sadaqat Foundation has been doing in Nigeria by encouraging people to pay their zakat and ensuring that the distribution of the zakat is carried out as directed by Allah and the Prophet Muhammad.”

He said: “Allah encourages the rich to help the poor, to raise the poor from the level of poverty to a level where they can look after themselves comfortably and eventually be able to help others. That is exactly why Allah has made zakat such a very important pillar in Islam. In fact, it is the third of the five pillars of Islam.

“Zakat made a mark in the time of the second caliph, Umar, to the effect that there were no persons or families in the community that required zakat because of the fact that in previous years, zakat had been distributed in such a way that it had empowered the generality of the poor.”

He described the inauguration of the borehole – for the benefit of Muslims and non-Muslims alike – as an opportunity to tell the world that “what Islam has come to do is to raise people from the level of need to the level of comfortable living.”

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