Zakaat: Issue5 Consequence Of Not Paying Zakaat

Non � Payment of Zakaat�

Along with the blessings and bounties attached to the payment of Zakaat, it is worthwhile mentioning the ill-effects of its non-payment.

Destruction of Wealth:

The Messenger of Allah (sallallahu alaihi wa-sallam) mentioned that the wealth of those who do not pay the Zakaat is eventually destroyed . [Tabaranee].

In another narration, he (sallallahu alaihi wa-sallam) said:

�Those who neglect and do not pay Zakaat will suffer calamities like famine.� [(hasan) by Shaikh al-Albanee in Targheeb wa Tarheeb] and:
�Whenever people restrain from paying the Zakaat due on their wealth, they will be deprived of rain. If it were not for the sake of their cattle they would not receive rain.� [Ibn Majah and al-Haakim]

Severe Punishment in the Hereafter: Apart from the misery and ruins faced in the world, those negligent of Zakaat will be severely punished in the Hereafter, Allah says:

�Those who hoard up gold and silver (Kanz: the money, the Zakaat of which has not been paid), and spend not in the Way of Allah, � announce unto them a painful torment. On the day when that (Kanz) will be heated in the Fire of Hell and with it will be branded their foreheads, their flanks and their backs (and it will said unto them): �
�This is the treasure which you hoarded for yourselves. Now taste of what you used to hoard.� [Soorah al-Tawbah (9): 34-35]

The Messenger of Allah (sallallahu alaihi wa-sallam) said:

�Whoever is made wealthy by Allah and does not pay the Zakaat of his wealth, then on the Day of Resurrection his wealth will be made like a baldheaded poisonous male snake with two black spots over the eyes. The snake will encircle his neck and bite his cheeks and say, �I am your wealth, I am your treasure.� Then he recited: �Let not those who covetously withhold of that which Allah has bestowed on them of His Bounty (wealth) think that it is good for them (and thus they do not pay the obligatory Zakaat). Nay, it will be worse for them; the things which they conversely withheld shall be tied to their necks like a collar on the Day of Resurrection.� [Saheeh al-Bukharee (vol: 2 no: 486)]

And in a long Hadeeth:

��If any owner of the cattle and sheep does not pay what is due on them, when the Day of Resurrection comes, a soft sandy plain will be spread for them. He will find none of them missing, with twisted horns, without horns or with a broken horn, and they will stab him with their horns and crush him with their hoofs. As often as the first of them passes him the last of them will be made to return to him for a day, the extent of which will be fifty thousand years, until judgment is pronounced upon the servants. And he would be shown his Path leading him to Paradise or to Hell.� [Saheeh Muslim (no: 2161)]