Fasting and Dawah Ilallah CONTENTS

ZAKAT FOR DAWAH ILALLAH Often ‘for the cause of God’ is related to jihad. Dawah ilallah or the call to God and the Quran has been termed as great jihad, jihad-e-kabir in the following verse of the Quran: “Do great jihad with the help of it (the Quran)” (The Quran, 25:52) The Egyptian scholar, Rasheed Raza Misri, has noted in his commentary of the Quran entitled Tafseer Al-Manar that the words ‘for the cause of God’ are equally applicable to those who strive to spread the word of God. (Al-Risala English, June 1984, pp 6-7) In Tafseer Al-Manar, Rasheed Raza Misri explains that the best way to give alms (zakat) ‘for the cause of God’ in the present age, is to contribute to the training of dayees, and to their dispatch to other lands, and to continue to give financial support to them. The highest form of spending zakat ‘for the cause of God’ is, therefore, to strive to spread the word of God (Quran) to mankind and calling people to God (dawah ilallah).