Re: Different thoughts on Edhi
Even though most what Edhi trust spend is on destitute and needy, who are mostly Muslims, but that should not matter, as there is no such thing in Islam that Zakat (or Sadqah or khairat or fitra or whatever donation) cannot be given to non-Muslim. Only requirement of Zakat is that, it should be given to those who are Mustahaq (destitute and needy) … and should not be spent on expenses or wages (except modest expenses of people collecting Zakat).
Actually, first group of people a person should give Zakat is amongst own relatives and neighbours, regardless of they are Muslim or non-Muslim.
It is true that some people claiming to be scholar have opinion that Zakat should not be given to non-Muslim, but their argument is baseless and has no reference or basis from Quran or Sunnah.
They base their argument on principle saying that since non-Muslim are not liable to pay Zakat, they should not be eligible to get Zakat, but that argument is ridiculous. It is same as saying that, since even Muslim destitute and Muslim needy (those who have less than Nisab) are not liable to pay zakat than they should not be illegible to get Zakat. Shows, how baseless and ridiculous their argument in this respect is.
Secondly, there is no difference between Zakat and Sadqah, with difference that Zakat is minimum Sadqah made obligatory on Muslim with resources. To make things easy, that minimum required Sadqah is named Zakat, and rest (above minimum) as Sadqah. Though in reality, all is Sadqah, including Zakat … and purpose of all Sadqah (including Zakat) is to purify wealth what one has, or avoid/divert any problem in life.
This is the best definition of zakat I have come across. Actually in quran the ayat that lists the groups of people that you can give zakat to are first, your own parents. Now parents can be muslim or non muslim. Whoever came up with this idea that zakat can only be given to a muslim is not doing proper research. The biggest problem of our nation is that we never research and instead we rely on baseless fatwas or opinions of humans like maulvis. We need to follow the law of God, not his creation.