Zakat, the Islamic act of giving a share of one's wealth to charity, has become high-tech with the deployment of ATMs across UAE to collect funds from the donors.

UAE's Zakat Fund, an authority that has been established to enhance awareness regarding one of the pillars of Islam, recently opened its 11th Zakat Fund ATM in the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi as part of its strategy to enhance Zakat through innovative methods and to reach maximum number of people.

Abdullah bin Oqeidah Al-Muheiry, Secretary-General of the Zakat Fund, said the new service will serve people for not only paying their Zakat but also for calculating it.

"Zakat can be paid in cash or through cheques or credit cards. Machines are programmed to receive all currencies," he said, adding that Zakat beneficiaries can avail the service by using a magnetic card.

All operations of debit and credit from the machine are linked to the central account of Zakat Fund and every person fulfilling Zakat will receive a receipt for his payment.

Al-Muheiry said that more machines will be installed in all emirates of the UAE to achieve the goals of the Zakat Fund in enhancing awareness about Zakat and increasing the resources of the fund.

The service of the ATM machine comes as a new service has been offered by Zakat Fund under its slogan "Modernised vision for Sharia Duty" which started by payment of Zakat through the website of the Zakat Fund as well as via mobile phones and other similar services.