In the Islam faith, what one consumes daily in food is an important aspect of their daily life. The term Halaal means lawful to eat and the term Haraam means unlawful to eat. Pork and alcohol are both examples of Haraam.
Zakat, one of the five pillars of Islam is an almsgiving. It is seen as a purification act in which one gives 2.5% of their income to eight catagories of people who qualify to recieve it. They have the idea that because wealth comes and is provided by Allah, it is therefore right to distribute it among those less fortunate and as a sign to remember that because Allah provides you with the money, he can also take it away. Zakat is NOT CHARITY but an actual obligation that must be fulfilled. The Zakat can not be distributed among the families. It also comes with Salat which is concern for one's neighbor. It has recently grown into a major issue because groups collect this money but the United States closed them down because they think they are terrorist collecting money for weapons.
1 from The Koran. Trans. M.H. Shakir. Tahrike Tarsile Qur'an Inc. 1983. 7 January 2000. http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/k/koran-idx?type=DIV0&byte=498061 |