Grain, Livestock and Meat

There is a scholar in Qatar who has proven that if zakāt were paid in the Muslim world, there would be a gross surplus of wealth today. It is very interesting, because there is also zakāt of agriculture and livestock. Agriculture has one-fifth. The World Bank estimated that if two per cent of the world's agricultural crops were taxed — two per cent — there would be no hunger anywhere. Now, Islam says five per cent for irrigation that one did oneself, and ten per cent for agriculture based on natural irrigation, like rain and things like that. So if one did not work for it, one pays more; if one did the irrigation, one pays less. So ten per cent of wheat, corn, barley — all of these grains — is taxed, and it is supposed to be given and distributed to the poor. Also livestock: for every five camels one sheep is given, like that; for thirty cows, a calf; for forty…

The meat sacrificed during the Hajj is now canned, and they send it around to poor people around the world. That is what they do now. And one does not have to sacrifice. There are three ways of making Hajj, and in the way the Prophet (peace be upon him) made it, it is not obligatory to sacrifice: one can if one wants to. But if one does sacrifice, the meat can either be eaten there, or — and this is encouraged — distributed amongst the poor. The reason it is encouraged to sacrifice during the Eid was traditionally that poor people generally did not eat meat very often, and so the idea was that on the Eid it was a time when meat was brought to the poor people, to give them meat. Now meat is increasingly becoming cheaper, and so one finds people are meat eaters all over. Sayyidunā ʿUmar said: beware of meat, because it has the addiction of wine. And he also said to one man who used to eat meat every day — every time you desire meat, you buy it? — and the man said yes; and he said: I am afraid you are going to be from the people who lose all their good deeds in this world. In other words, that one enjoys the world so much that one cannot show the right gratitude. So it was not encouraged to eat meat all the time. Now Muslims have become heavy meat eaters, but traditionally most Muslim cultures were really more semi-vegetarian cultures. The heavy eating of meat is more of a recent phenomenon, and beef is very new in the Muslim world. Traditionally Muslims were not beef eaters; they were goat and sheep eaters.