When I first started working as a houseman (HO), I thought that my payment to Baitulmal Sarawak of RM4/month was part of zakat pendapatan. Of course, I was wrong. Later on, having become a more learned person, when I moved to West Malaysia after tying the knot, I decided to set up my Zakat account online.

Another rookie mistake I made back then was to set it up online, but pay it to the Zakat Centre at Wilayah Persekutuan, MAIWP. The sole reason was that it was convenient back then to do so, as Pusat Zakat Melaka did not have such services yet. While it was not wrong, scholars did say that it is more afdal to pay zakat at the place where you work. That was also something that was enlightened to me many years later.

However, I have been putting it on hold for quite some time until recently.

I sent an email to MAIWP to inform them of my intent. They gave me a support letter to be handed over to the officer in charge of our salaries. The next plan was to make a visit to Pusat Zakat Melaka (PZM) itself and get it sorted out. However, coincidentally, PZM was also doing a roadshow at certain facilities in Melaka. My clinic was one of those destinations. It was a very alhamdulilah situation as I did not have to find time to go to their office at all. The timing was so perfect that the moment the zakat to MAIWP is cancelled, it will be resumed nicely by PZM. With a new calculated rate in line with my salary increment.

A colleague asked what we should do if previously the zakat we paid was not enough because we did not calculate it properly. The officer said that since we are paying more than what is calculated, just make a niat that whatever extra we are paying in the future is to cover for the ones we have lacked before. There was no need to make extra payments. Insha Allah, Allah knows our best intentions. The advice was simple, yet comforting to our dilemmas.

I look forward to these positive changes in my pay slip next month.