Page:Five Pillars of Islam (IA fivepillarsofisl00kamauoft).djvu/21

 are those who come with their adhesion to Islam. Their conversion to the faith makes them an object of persecution, and sometimes deprives them of the comfort they have been used to. A portion of the "zakát" should go to guard the interest of and secure happiness to these new members of the Muslim fraternity. Thus the verse clearly lays a duty on every Muslim to devote the quarter of his "zakát" in the spread of Islam. Besides "zakát" other alms are undefinable. In the words of the Holy Prophet: "From giving a smile to one in distress, to devoting everything dear to you in the cause of humanity," is optional charity.

The provisions of old age pensions, parish relief measures and other similar means of saving indigent members of a society from the ravages of poverty and want, are but replicas of Islamic provisions of poor law.