Zakat — Charity, Wealth and Social Responsibility

Zakat is not charity in the voluntary sense. It is a due — a right the poor hold over the wealth of the rich, named in the Qur'an alongside prayer more than thirty times. To withhold it is to keep property that is not yours.

What is owed

Classical Sunni fiqh charges 2.5% annually on wealth held above the nisab (roughly the value of 85g of gold or 595g of silver) for one lunar year: cash, gold, silver, trade goods and receivable debts. Different rates apply to livestock (varying by herd), crops (5% irrigated, 10% rain-fed) and mined treasure (20%).

Shia fiqh confines obligatory zakat to nine categories — gold, silver, camels, cattle, sheep, wheat, barley, dates and raisins — and adds khums: one fifth of the annual surplus after living expenses, based on Qur'an 8:41, divided between the share of the Imam and the descendants of the Prophet in need.

Who receives it

Qur'an 9:60 names eight categories: the poor, the destitute, those employed to collect it, those whose hearts are to be reconciled, freeing captives, the debt-burdened, in the path of God, and the stranded traveller. Zakat cannot be paid to one's own dependants, nor — in most schools — to the Prophet's family, for whom khums exists instead.

Beyond the obligation

Sadaqah is voluntary and unlimited, and includes non-financial acts: a good word, removing harm from the road, a smile. Sadaqah jariyah — a well, a school, a published book — continues to earn after death. Waqf, the endowment, built much of Muslim civilisation's hospital and university infrastructure.

The social logic

Zakat is a circulation mechanism: it penalises hoarding, funds the base of society directly, and is calculated on assets rather than income so that idle wealth cannot hide. "So that it does not circulate solely among the rich among you" (59:7) is the operating principle.

References across the schools

• Qur'an: 2:43, 2:267, 9:60, 9:103, 8:41, 59:7.
• Sunni: Sahih al-Bukhari, Kitab al-Zakat; al-Qaradawi, Fiqh al-Zakat.
• Shia: al-Kulayni, al-Kafi, Kitab al-Zakat; al-Sistani, Islamic Laws (zakat and khums chapters).
• Salafi/Wahhabi: Ibn Baz and the Permanent Committee, Fatawa al-Lajnah al-Da'imah on zakat calculation.