Who Receives It, and How It Is Governed

The Qur'an names the categories of legitimate recipients: the poor and the needy, those employed to collect it, those whose hearts are to be reconciled, the freeing of captives, the relief of debtors, the path of God, and the stranded traveller. Zakat may not be given to one's own dependents whom one is already bound to support, nor, in the classical rules, to the wealthy or to the family of the Prophet. This fixed list distinguishes zakat sharply from open-ended voluntary charity, which may be given to anyone.

Historically zakat was collected and distributed by the Islamic state as a public institution; in the modern world its administration varies widely, gathered by government agencies in some Muslim-majority countries and given directly or through charitable bodies elsewhere. The distinct almsgiving structures of other traditions, the Twelver Shia khums and the tithe of other faiths, run in parallel to it, and among Shia Muslims khums is levied alongside zakat rather than in place of it.