Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi Golpayegani has issued a statement authorizing that a third of the Imam’s share of the khoms charity tax be donated to help victims of the floods in Pakistan.
In the statement issued on Saturday, Ayatollah Lotfollah Golpayegani offered his condolences to the families of victims of the natural disaster in Pakistan and gave permission for a third of the Imam’s share to be donated as humanitarian assistance to the Muslim people of Pakistan.
**Iran has so far sent 142 tons of humanitarian assistance shipments to Pakistan. Around 84 tons of the supplies were sent via air while another 58 tons were transported through the border. **
According to the Encyclopedia of the Middle East, the Khoms charity tax as interpreted by the Jafari school of Shia Islam consists of a “tax on one fifth of the income, in addition to the zakat. It is calculated as a capital gains tax. The tax is paid to the governor, but it is voluntary and is never a forced exaction.”
According to the book Religion, Globalization, and Political Culture in the Third World, edited by Jeffrey Haynes, “Half of the khoms, known as the Imam’s share (sahm-e imam or vodjuhat) is generally collected by a network of mosques and is centralized by the devotional leaders (marja taqlid)… It is intended to ensure the material upkeep of the clergy.”
Press TV
Jazak Allah to Iran