Thursday, January 3, 2008
Giving Zakah of Our Knowledge (Due Monday, January 7, 2008
We talked about the importance of seeking knowledge and paying zakah of our knowledge. What does the idea of giving zakah of our knowledge mean to you? Please explain in detail. To get the full credit, you must respond to at least to two of your fellow students' coments.
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Giving Zakat isn't just giving money to the poor people it is also giving knowledge to our brain. We have been talking about those two diffrent kinds of Zakat and how important they are. The first one is giving money to the poor its important to think about other people rather than ourselves. The second one is giving knowledge to our brain it is very important for us to have the knowledge we are suppose to have. So if we wanna do Zakat the first one and second one we get rewarded for it.
Most people think that Zakah is only giving money to the poor but giving Zakah can be anything. Zakah can be in knoledge, food, and money. I am going to talk about giving Zakah in knowledge. Allah (swt) said that one of the best Zakah is in knowledge, but before you share your knowledge with others you must apply it to your self before you apply it to others. So when you give Zakah for knowledge apply it in your life then apply it others.
I think giving zakah on our knowledge means both helping first ourselves, then others. Studying hard with the will of learning, is the first step of giving zakah of our knowledge. The 2nd step is to apply our knowledge by teaching others. An idiom that sort of describes first learning, then teaching is "to know the ropes." This means to actually get to know something first before passing it on.
Giving Zakah of Our Knowledge was one of the discussions in class. Zakah doesn’t have to be money, food or cloths there are other ways of giving Zakah. One of the ways we discussed about was giving Zakah with our knowledge. Before you start teaching people about good and what to do you must have to apply it. It’s not right to tell someone to do something that you don’t do.
Once you begin to apply and show it in your life. The way that I perceive it is that there are steps that must be taken to pass on knowledge. The first step is acquiring the knowledge. The second is to apply and understand the knowledge and the last step is to pass the knowledge on. To me giving Zakah as knowledge means to pass the knowledge on.
To teach someone what you have learned. If what you had taught was something like a surah in the Quran and you passed away after you taught it there’s a chance to gain good deeds even when you’re dead. Every time that person recites that ayah or surah you will get good deeds. In passing on knowledge for Zakah you help someone and you gain rewards after. In short passing on knowledge is what I believe is one of the best forms of Zakah.
In class, we talked about how one shaikh said that we should give zakat with our knowledge. We also discussed what zakat is. Zakat means to give; not just with concrete stuff. Giving with zakat means to first gain knowledge and then use it. I also thinks it means to spread kwowledge. In class, we learned about the outer circle (i.e. self, relatives/ family, community, muslim world, world). When we give zakat of kwowledge, we are spreading out of the self circle. We also learned about Bloom's Taxonomy. I think we are know on Application and Synthesis. I also think we can give zakat by applying and spreading knowledge because zakat means to give. People are kind of actually benefitting more with knowledge then they do with money. In class we were learning about subliminal messages and I think this hadeeth has a positive one. I also think this hadeeth is telling us that no matter what it is, zakat is still benefitial.
To me, giving Zakat of our knowledge means applying the knowledge to our life and then preaching it to others. It’s like a cycle: first we receive the knowledge from someone; we apply it to our life, and then preach it to others. The most important part is applying the knowledge because if WE don’t apply it to ourselves, how are other people going to apply it to themselves? We need to apply the knowledge to our life so that we can practice our religion. It is said in a hadith that our religion will be chased just like a wild beast chasing its prey. The only thing that can save us is if we practice our religion and in order to practice our religion, we need to apply our knowledge to our life. Also, on the Day of Resurrection, one of the five questions that we will be asked by Allah (swt) is what we did with our knowledge. So, we should apply our knowledge and preach it to others.
To me giving zakat of our knowledge means to share our knowledge, apply it, and put it to good use it is a job on us. We have to share our knowledge because it will benefit others and save them from the wrong things. We can’t be selfish and keep our knowledge to ourselves. There is a hadith in Sahih Muslim that says:
Abu Huraira (R) reported Allah's Messenger (SAW) said: “When a man dies, his acts come to an end, but three, recurring charity, or knowledge (by which people) benefit, or a pious son, who prays for him (for the deceased).” This teaches us that the knowledge we give or pass on never dies. We will be helping someone in the muslim ummah and getting good deeds and good deeds are rewards themselves.
We have to apply our knowledge and put it to good use because it will be useless having that knowledge. We should seek knowledge to become better muslims. In a hadith it says: Jabir Ibn ‘Abd Allah narrated, the Messenger of Allah (SAW) said “Do not acquire knowledge in order to vie with scholars, and to wrangle with the foolish, and to sit in the best seats: whoever does that his abode will be the Fire, the Fire.” On the day of judgment if we had knowledge about something and we ignored that knowledge and didn’t change ourselves that knowledge will go against us. We will be going toward the straight path and if we put it to good use we can help people by creating and building things, improving lifestyles, staying healthy etc.
To me, the word zakah means, giving charity in the form of money, clothes, food or even sharing knowledge. What I mean by giving zakah in the form of knowledge is, you can give knowledge to others by teaching it. From my point of view, before you can start doing this action, you have to seek some knowledge by reading books and doing research etc, and make sure that what you are learning is right and true.
It is important to make sure that what you are learning is true and right because, if you later on in the future start teaching false information to others, you will soon start getting bad deeds and the people who you are teaching might do wrong and bad things and might even accuse you as a liar because what you are teaching is wrong. Once you have done this you can start sharing your knowledge with others so that your knowledge will benefit mankind. When you do this, you have to make sure that your intention is on helping others, and not on doing this action so that you can prove how smart you are.
Giving zakah of our knowledge to me means learning, and spreading what you learn. Some people are too poor to go to schools, and they don't know that much, we can share our knowledge with them as zakah. Not only the stuff you learn in school, you can share a hadeeth and things from the qur'an. If someone is doing something wrong, Wudu for example, you can teach them the right way.
Some people think that the only way you can pay zakah is by giving money, but you can do much more than that. You can give clothes, knowledge, and food. Giving knowledge is a great way to pay zakah, and I think we ALL should do it.
After you read the post you probably have of thought, "But how can you do that?" Well if you try to think further, or go the extra mile then I am pretty sure you can find it.
If you really think about it. Giving Zakah of Our Knowledge can possibly mean many things. Well to me I think that it means just this. People go to school to get education. But you can't just finally receive all of the knowledge and not use to. Some people will just use it to impress others.
Why waste time to impress them when you are suppose to impress Alah (swt)? Once you have knowledge you must put it to good use. You shouldn't just keep it aside. You should apply it to yourself. After you apply to yourself, apply it to others.
What I mean by apply it to others, is that you should spread it. You can do that by simlpy teaching people around you what you have learned and what they can learn. Put it this way. My teachers at my school don't just teach for the money. They teach because they feel that it is their duty to fill us with knowledge, and to help us all become successful in life too.
That is what I think the meaning of "Giving Zakah of Our Knowledge" is. I hope that after you have read this that you have learned something new that you have never learned before, or didn't quite see it clearly. Thank you for your time. Assalamu Ailaikum!
The idea of giving zakah of our knowledge is passing it on. You can pass it on by teaching it, writing a book, and acting upon it. The way you would be passing your knowledge by acting upon it, is people will realize the way your acting and see how mush smarter it is then what they originally are doing. For example if some one is doing wado and they are doing it wrong; you should go and make wado in front of them so they can see the right way. That way you would be giving zakah of your knowledge when you give zakah of your knowledge you don’t do it to show off that you’re smarter, then it won’t be zakah.
I think that Giving Zakah of Our Knowledge means one very important thing. First of all, we should know that Zakah doesn’t mean only charity. Zakah means to give. It doesn’t matter what you give: money to the needy people or knowledge to everyone. Even a smile is Zakah!
Giving Zakah of our knowledge means to preach. This is because we are giving our knowledge to people. We are also contributing what we know to the world. If you teach someone something good, you will get good deeds of course. If the person you taught tells another person, then you get even more good deeds. The chain keeps going on and on from one person to another. You even get good deeds in your grave if the chain keeps getting passed on! Isn’t that amazing?! From one tiny good thing you do you get a HUGE amount of good deeds! If we give Zakah of our knowledge we will get a lot of good deeds Inshallah!
Paying Zakah of our knowledge means to share your knowledge with people. It also means to give your knowledge to charity. Just like giving money to charity. It also means that you give away your knowledge to people for the right reasons. You have to give the correct knowledge to people about religion or else on the day of judgement you will be held accountable.
i think that giving zakah is like for example: from a dollar you take out 25 cents. its is basically giving money off of your property or your jewelery. if you want to pay zakah than you have to use your knowledge cause for zakah you usually need to be careful because you never know how much money you could give when you are not suppose to givethat much so in money you always need knowledge.without knowledge nothing works. knowledge is basically used for money and other things and zakah is part of the money because you are paying money to something really expensive. at first i thought that zakah was paying money to charity but after it came out to be paying money to your own property and gold.
Giving zakah of your knowledge is to use it and apply it for good things. You cant give and give but you use nothing of which you say. You need to preach it make sure you are using your knowledge everday as you are giving your knowlege. If you cant even use it then how will others, they wont.
So far in most of the comments, I am reading meaning of zakah. I am referring to the zakah of knowledge not money or property. Please think back about the class discussion. "Give Zakah of knowledge, and when it was asked, what is the Zakah of knowledge ? the answer was, Act on what you have learned" (Al-Faqeeh wal Mutafaqah) I hope this quote will be helpful.
Knowledge is a prized possession. Using it in the right way and for the right reasons is a great responsibility. When you atttain knowledge, it is your duty to share it with others. Prophet Muhammad (S) has said,
"Seeking knowledge is an obligation on every Muslim."
-Ibn Majah
Knowledge is one of the many things Allah [SWT] has blessed us with. Allah told us to give zakah on the things that He [SWT] has given us. We share that wealth by giving zakah to the less fortunate. In the same way, we are supposed to give zakah of our knowledge by sharing it with others who need it.
Giving zakah of our knowledge means to pass on the information to others, while it's useful knowledge. Before even giving knowledge to others... we have to give zakah to our selfs first to make sure that we are learning and understanding our knowledge. Applying our knowledge is also helping our knowledge in practicing it. We should pass on and apply knowledge because knowledge follows us through every step you take it'll be next to you, and applying knowledge to others teaches them to use that knowledge!
I agree with Sena when she said the 1st. step is to apply your knowledge, and the 2nd. step is to pass on that knowledge. This is very true because if you don't teach yourself knowledge, what knowledge would be passed on if you don't learn anything??
What Hana mentioned, you have to make sure that the knowledge that you're learning is true before passed on. What she said there would be rumors passed on if you tell them a rumor about the information, so that's also how you apply knowledge.
Zakat does not only mean giving money it can also apply for knowledge. Not just passing on your knowledge but applying it to your daily life. I agree to Rabab's comment. On the day of judgment we will be accountable for the knowledge we had absorbed in this life. It's not right to be saying one thing then doing another then you are just being hypocritical.
I also liked the way Zaina explained it. It is like a cycle because you shouldn't do the last step before step 2. It's all prerequisite. One of the five pillars of Islam is giving Zakat so it is fard you have to give some kind of Zakat if you are able to.
I think giving zakah on our knowledge means that when we learn something good and useful we should apply it into our lives. Then we should teach it to others.You can't just tell other people to do something when your not doing it yourself. So before you worry about others following something right first you should follow it then share it with others.That's how we're giving zakah on the knowledge that we learn.
Maliha, since you missed the class discussion on this topic, please read my response to the students' comments and send your response accordingly.
I agree with Zaina about the cycle because if we come to think about it is a pattern and it always repeats itself.If the pattern is broken then we will be skipping a step which will result in not applying the knowledge to yourself or not spreading the knowledge.I also agree with Saif's because if we pass on knowledge and people will use it we will get rewards like in the hadith I mentioned in my comment.I kind of agree with Lena’s because knowledge will follow us but that will happen only if we keep it alive.
I agree with Zaina completely. I liked the point she made about applying knowledge in our life before we pass it on. Another point she made that I liked was how we need to practice our religion. I also agree with Sena when she said that the first step of Giving Zakah of Our Knowledge is to study hard with the will of learning. I liked the idiom she added because it makes sense with what she wanted to say.
comment1:
I agree with Zaina and Saif, zakah of knowledge is like a cycle and/or steps. If you forget to apply one step the whole meaning of the action will be corrupted and the cycle will be broken.
comment2:
Niveen I love your comment and agree with it . I think that you are right about the fact that we should stop trying to impress others when we are suppose to just impress Allah (s.w.t)
I agree with Rabab because we need to apply our knowledge and use it. If we don’t use our knowledge and if we don’t apply it, it will be useless knowledge. Some knowledge is useful, and some is not. We should seek the knowledge that helps us become stronger Muslims. We shouldn’t seek the unnecessary knowledge.
I also agree with Hana. We have to make sure that the knowledge that we are passing on to others is true before we pass it on. If we pass on knowledge that is not true, not only will we go astray, but others, as well.
Knowledge is a prized possession. Using it in the right way and for the right reasons is a great responsibility. When you attain knowledge, it is your duty to share it with others. Prophet Muhammad (S) has said,
"Seeking knowledge is an obligation on every Muslim."
-Ibn Majah
Knowledge is one of the many things Allah [SWT] has blessed us with. Allah told us to give zakah on the things that He [SWT] has given us. It is our responsibility to first use the knowledge we have in our own lives and then teach it to others. That is zakah of knowledge. It means we should do the things that we have learned and then share it with other people. It would be wrong if I give someone advice and do not follow it myself. For example, if I tell my friend to pray Wajib after Isha and do not pray it myself, it would not be right.
Ahmad, I like how you said,"You have to give the correct knowledge to people about religion or else on the day of judgement you will be held accountable." This was a strong point you made of being held accountable on the Day of Judgement.
Sena, I liked the idiom you shared with us which kind of relates to Zakah of knowledge.
I agree with Rabab. She said we need to share the knowledge that we learn so it will benefit others and save them from bad things. Also, I liked how she added some hadith in her reply. GOOD JOB RABAB!!!
Also, I agree with Zaina. I liked how she said it was like a cycle: first we receive the knowledge from someone, we apply it to our life, and then preach it to others. I also liked the example she gave,our religion will be chased just like a wild beast chasing its prey. I really liked your explanation and how you added good examples! GOOD JOB!!
Hey Muaz, I think you're going on the right track but zakat with knowledge is first applying it and then spreading it. So you shouldn't spread knowledge if you don't apply it
Mrs khan I had this on paper but just now have put it on the blog .
The idea of giving zakh of our knowledge means to me that if you know some thing you should spread you knowledge not just keep it to your self.If you keep it to your self their is no point of learning it.When you learn you should teach.Also you should seek knoledge.If you don't seek knoledge or want to learn you learn you can't teach others so seeking knoledge &giving zakah of our knoledge are tied together .I agree with hayszan giving zakah isn't just giving mony there are many ways to give zakah .I also agree with muaz we have to apply our knowledge in our own life before we apply it to others
Hayszan I really like how you listed different types of zakah you did not just list one and keep talking about it you listed a different type of zakah.
sana I really like how you said that we have to use our knowledge for our selves before using or applying it to the lives of other people .If you can't apply the knowledge to your self then how are you going to apply it to others.
Students, I hope you do understand that paying zakah on our property (money, gold, land, house etc.) is an obligation and cannot be exchnged with paying zakah of knowledge.
You do have a duty to apply your knowledge and then spread it but it is not a compensation for zakah on property.
Yay! It worked!
Heyszan I like how you wrote your response. But you need to give less information on giving Zakat
in money. And more information in
giving Zakat in knowledge. And you
need to put more detail in your
response.
Ahmed I liked your response a lot.
You are right that you must apply it to your self before others. But
you can use a little more detail.
Keep up the good work.
I agree with Sena,and Rabab they wrote that we need to learn it, apply it, than teach it, because we don't just teach it as if we don't know, we have to do it too.
Muaz i agree with your comment but you have to give the right knowledge to people. The reason is because the knowledge you give to others is the one their going to use and if you give them the wrong knowledge you will be responsible for their sins.
I agree with zaina because of the cycle. When you said that i really thought" WOW that is true." I think that when we preach teach it in small portions of groups. You have to really think to preach a whole society.
I agree with you heyszan but you also have to give knowledge to others to spread your religion. But you have to give them the right knowledge. Like I told Muaz that if you give people the wrong knowledge yuo will be accountable for their sins.
I also agree with heyszan because zakah is not only money and poor people. We think zakah is giving to the porrr but it is just giving. You give knowledge and you may help those people who may have nothing but that is what they want.
Talha I agree with the quote you put.I agree with what you said it impotant to seek knolege.
I realy like what sena wrote about helping first ourselves, then others.I also like how she broke up the parts of giving zakah of our knowledge.
Hey Sena, I think you were right and to the point. I liked your response and idiom and the way you mentioned the steps. I think you could go into more detail and talk about different ways to give zakat and basically, what zakat really is.
I think a way to pay Zakat with our knowledge is to teach other people. You are giving your knowledge to other people.The easiest way to give knowledge to other people is becoming a teacher.If you never teach someone what you know all the knowledge you have would be a waste. Then there is another way to give Zakat.It is by giving money to the poor people .Some people don't give Zakat they would only think about themselves.For both Zakats you get rewarded for doing them.
I think giving Zakah of our knowledge is really that we spead and give da'wa of what we know. This doesnt mean that you only help others it means that you should help yourself in acting upon what you learn before spreading it to others.Most people think that Zakah is giving money or food to the less fortunate. I think that Zakah has a deeper meaning. We should also help others understand our religion in a way that they do not think that we are bad people. I also believe that we should pass knowledge of anything we learn including Islamic knowledge to the people of the othe r religions
I agree with how Zaina said that we will be asked about what we did with our knowledge on the day of judgment. This means that we should not waste what we get from others. We learned that there are three types of people. One type takes in knowledge and gives nothing back. Another one lets the knowledge go away and ignores it. The Best one of them is the one who takes in knowlledge and gives some bak.
U also agree with the hadith that Rabab talks about. The knowledge we spread should stay with others and they shou.ld also pass it on so you get good dees and so does everone in the chain.This becomes a recurring pattern and then your knowledge that you might have learned in second grade may get you billions of deeds forr the hereafter.
Hanee you are so right. Younever would've thought that something so simple (such as correcting someone if they made a mistake in wadu)could be giving Zakah of our knowledge.
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