Zakaat and Awqaaf Amana Foundation (ZAAF), a non-governmental Islamic foundation, has disbursed N12 million worth of assets and cash to 150 beneficiaries in Ibadan, Oyo State.
The foundation’s Executive Secretary, Alhaji Nurudeen Yekeen, said items distributed included generating sets, sewing machines, electric sewing machine, shoe making machine, electrical support materials, foodstuffs, phone engineering equipment, medications and cash gifts.
He said the ZAAF’s 2022 Zakat disbursement programme covered economic empowerment, educational and health supports and debt settlements.
The foundation’s national chairman, Sheikh Murtado AbdulGhaffar, commended all Zakat payers and urged other wealthy Muslims who have not been paying Zakat to start paying, saying it is one of the five fundamental pillars upon which Islam is built.
He also urged the beneficiaries to judiciously utilise the items given to them with fear of Allah as they too can start paying Zakat in the nearest future.
Ustādh Rasheed Haashim, in a lecture at the distribution exercise, explained that apart from the fact that Zakat purifies the payers’ wealth and makes Allah to bless their sources of income more, it alleviates poverty in any society where it is being paid and distributed with the fear of Allah.
The recipients thanked the donors and organisers of the event for the gesture and prayed Allah to enrich them more.