Well, death and taxes are still around, as is Red Nose Day - which for those don't live in the UK is a time when large numbers of people play the fool and act like clowns in public in an attempt to raise money for charity by making people laugh. And raise millions I might add.

Death and taxes, the two great inevitables. One is usually seen as the ultimate province of religion, and the other the absolute prerogative of the state, two areas which few people around here can imagine being brought together any more. Yet this year the budget comes in the middle of Ramadhan, the month of muslim fasting, which is also the month when we pay our Zakat, usually translated as Alms Tax, though that doesn't really do it justice.

The Zakat is of central importance in Islam, being one of the essential elements known as the Five Pillars of Islam, which makes it equivalent in importance to the Ramadhan fast, the Pilgrimage, and the daily Prayers. In fact, when the Qur'an mentions the need to make daily prayers, it almost invariably links this with the need to pay zakat.

Now taxes enforced by the state always involve tension between government and citizens. They are seen as something to be avoided wherever possible, from cash in hand transactions at the bottom of the economic ladder to the exploitation of tax loopholes by executives at the top.

Zakat can't be like that. Muslims recognise it as essential, but Quran says quite clearly that there is no compulsion in religion. Zakat is a form of charity. Individuals calculate their own payments, and collectors should bless them and wish them increased wealth.

Muslims recognize that all wealth ultimately belongs to God, and humanity only receives it as a loan, a trust to be used in permitted ways. In this world wealth belongs to the community, and no muslim can demand the right to luxury while others go hungry. So individual wealth must be purified by contributing to the welfare of the poor, and wealth should be a constantly active force in the community, used and not hoarded. Zakat is only paid on wealth you have been sitting on for a whole year.

The requirement for charity is to create a society where the poor are not despised or ignored, and people feel bound to each other because they care. Our character and behaviour should reflect God's Compassionate and Merciful nature. Charity should become integral to our lifestyle, and not seen just as cash donations, but include any actions done solely for the well-being of others. The Prophet said that even giving a smile is charity. Perhaps every day should be a Red Nose day.

Some years ago, Ali Izetbegovic, the leader of the war ravaged Bosnian muslims, wrote of Zakat "Poverty is not solved only through a shift in the ownership of goods, but also through personal striving, aim and goodwill. Nothing will be done if there is change in the ownership of goods, but hatred, exploitation, and subjugation remain in men's souls."

Thus Zakat has a character quite different from what is usually thought of as a tax. Unfortunately, in Ramadhan this year the muslims of Bosnia have been more concerned with death than with paying their taxes.