1. Objectives of zakah and its effects on the individual.

2. Objectives of zakah and its effects on society.

For a long time, many taxation specialists tried to widen the gap between taxes and social or humanistic issues, in order to prevent any adverse effect of such issues on the proceeds of taxes, claiming that taxes must have only one objective, bringing income to the treasury, and must otherwise be "neutral." It took deep social changes, several bloody revolutions, and great progression of ideas until financial experts came to realize that taxes can affect valuable socio-economic changes, can be used to reduce the economic differences among social classes, and can restore economic balance in society.

There has been no such upheaval in the history of zakah, for from the beginning, zakah, as one of the pillars of Islam, was an essential and sacred rite of worship.

Muslims pay it with devotion and sincerity, in accordance with the saying of the Prophet (p) "Deeds are [weighed] by intention, and each person will have [reward] according to his own intention,"1 and the verse "And they have been commanded no more than this:

to worship God, offering Him sincere devotion, being true [in faith], to establish regular prayer, and to practice zakah, and that is the religion right and straight."