Alms
This month, being the holy month of Ramadan, I ponder about the various things we had learned way back in grade school about Islam and its associated principles.
Knowing the five tenets or pillars of Islam, for instance, was mandatory simply because our school was situated in a prime location within the middle east. Move my school's geographic position some thousand miles north-east and I'd probably not know a single thing other than a little bit from my own religion. It's interesting how much of our learning depends on where we are and what time it is.
But think I did. Take the third pillar of Islam for example: Zakat, or obligatory almsgiving. The writing states that a rich man working in trade or industry generally gives away 2.5% of his total savings while an agriculturalist gives away 10% to 20% of his annual produce. Setting aside the debate of whether people actually follow the rule or not, notice the difference, not only in number, but also in the fact that tradesmen gave away money, but agriculturalists gave away actual produce. More notably, the tradesmen gave away part of their savings, while the agriculturalists gave away part of their produce.
This seems to imply that the agriculturalist made more money and had a larger capability to almsgive. In the modern day where industrialists have a greater potential to make money than agriculturalists, things change around a bit. And sometimes, even 2.5% of a businessman's total savings can mean a lot.
Clearly, these numbers don't mean much and were meant to serve only as guidelines and to encourage people to give away alms whenever possible.
Interesting how putting things down in writing affects the rule, the policy or the procedure.
Which brings me to my original point. In one of my courses this semester called organizational theory, we're studying topologies of bureaucratic environments, and my prof is right: putting things down in writing has an enormous impact on the way people read and interpret the rule, the policy or the procedure.
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