When a UN director asked Elon Musk to donate $6 billion or 2% of his net worth to help solve world hunger, many Muslims asked what would happen if the world’s wealthiest gave 2.5% zakat each year as Muslims do?
Elon Musk has a net worth of around $315 billion (£232m), so potentially the zakatable amount could be around $7.9 billion (£5.8bn).
Our presenter Mohammad Shoaib looks at the story and asks how many of the world’s problems would zakat solve if the world’s wealthiest had to give 2.5% of their wealth each year?
Conversation around Musk’s wealth continued over the weekend when he ran a Twitter poll asking whether he should sell 10% of his stake in Tesla to pay tax. Unsurprisingly, 58% said he should.
Although Musk said he would abide by the results, he has not publicly commented on the verdict. The vote could see him dispose of nearly $21 billion (£16bn) of stock in the electric carmaker.
