Zakaat funds help free prison inmates during Ramzan
Over the past few years, some organisations have used a part of their savings set aside for charity during the holy month to free prisoners who cannot afford bail or those who have no support system to pay fines associated with their convictions
It is in the month of Ramzan that most Muslims busy themselves with calculating zakaat,a prominent manifestation of charity in Islam. Usually given to those in abject poverty, over the past few years, zakaat funds, calculated at 2.5% of an individual’s annual savings and eligible assets, are being used to free inmates of jails who have served their prison sentences but have no support systems to pay fines associated with their convictions.
Moin Pasha, an octogenarian, says, “It was two years ago that I got to know of an organisation that uses zakaat money to pay those who cannot afford bail. Some of these prisoners are sole breadwinners and everything depends on them,” she says.
The Movement for Peace and Justice (MPJ), a nonprofit, is one such organisation that has been gathering zakaat from donors and channelling these funds to secure prisoner release. “Since last year we have paid 130 fines that are associated with prison sentences. Additionally, we have paid bail money for 35 prisoners and have got them all released,” Ahmed Hameeduddin Shakeel, finance secretary, MPJ, says.
The MPJ, an affiliate of the JamaateIslami Hind, a socioreligious organisation, after due diligence, identifies prisoners who are firsttime offenders involved in small crimes, and who have no family or friends to pay bail or fines.
“We have been active since 200708 and have seen cases in which family members have no idea of the whereabouts of the prison inmate. It is only much later that they get to know that they are in jail. The situation is so bad that families cannot even afford to pay ₹500. The aim and object of our organisation is to help everyone,” he says.
‘Religious injunction’
Ghazala Ahmed (name changed upon request), an entrepreneur, too has been earmarking a part of her zakaat funds for this cause.“The goodness here is twofold: a religious injunction is being fulfilled, and we help a family in dire need,” she says.
The All India Milli Council, another socioreligious group, has secured the release of 68 inmates lodged in prisons in and around Hyderabad, since last year, according to its officebearer Mufti Omar Abedeen Qasmi Madani.