Practices
Sadaqah
Charitable Practices
Citation Formats
General Reference
APA Style
BibTeX
Origin 610 to 700 CE
Voluntary giving, and the general Islamic word for charity that is not owed. It has no threshold, no rate, no due date and no fixed list of recipients, which is precisely what distinguishes it from the obligatory levies. It may be given to anyone in need, including to relatives, and to non-Muslims; it may be given anonymously, which the sources commend; and it need not be money at all, since the hadith literature counts removing an obstacle from the road, a good word, and a smile as sadaqah.
A sub-category, sadaqah jariyah, is giving whose benefit continues after the giver's death, a well, a tree, a school, a text left behind, and it is the conceptual root of the endowment.
The words are not always used with this precision in the sources. The Quran uses sadaqat in verse 9:60 for what the jurists classify as the obligatory levy, and the technical distinction between obligatory and voluntary giving was drawn by the jurists afterwards. Modern charitable appeals frequently blur the two, and a donor asked for sadaqah has not thereby discharged an obligation.
Facts
Practice
Category of PracticeCharitable and devotional: voluntary giving with no threshold, rate or fixed list of recipients, encompassing money, in kind help, and even a good word or a smile. 2 Who Performs ItAll adherents of the tradition 1 ObligationOptional and voluntary 1Tradition: Islam FrequencyAs the occasion requires 1 Solitary or CommunalPerformed alone or together 1 Status
Status TodayLiving tradition, practised today 1 Scholarship and Forensics
Scholarly NoteThe Quran itself uses the word sadaqat in verse 9:60 for what jurists later classified as the obligatory levy, zakat; the technical distinction between an obligatory and a voluntary form of giving was drawn by the jurists afterward rather than fixed in the Quranic vocabulary itself. 1 Origins
Origin Period Place of OriginMecca and Medina, Arabia 1 The general Quranic concept of voluntary giving, rooted in the Prophet's own lifetime. Observance
Observance NoteA sub-category, sadaqah jariyah, is giving whose benefit continues after the giver's death, a well, a tree, a school, a text left behind, and it is the conceptual root of the Islamic endowment. 1 Learn More
Voluntary Charity, and the Wide Sense of Giving
Sadaqah is voluntary charity in Islam, given freely and beyond the obligatory zakat, and the word carries a breadth that the English charity does not. Rooted in a term for truthfulness and sincerity, sadaqah is understood as an outward act that verifies the giver's faith. Unlike zakat, it is bound by no threshold, rate, timetable or fixed list of recipients: it may be given at any time, in any amount, to anyone in need, and it need not even be material. A celebrated saying of the Prophet Muhammad extends it to a smile offered to one's brother, the removal of an obstacle from the road, a good word, and the guiding of the lost, every act of kindness, in this teaching, is a sadaqah.
This openness makes sadaqah the everyday texture of Islamic charity, distinct from the formal annual audit of zakat. Where zakat is a due discharged, sadaqah is a continuous disposition, and the two are complementary: the first a floor of obligation, the second an unbounded field of merit.
The Gift That Keeps Giving
A distinctive development is the sadaqah jariyah, the ongoing or flowing charity, whose reward is held to continue reaching the giver after death for as long as its benefit endures. A well-known saying names three things whose reward does not cease when a person dies, an ongoing charity, knowledge from which others benefit, and a righteous child who prays for them. On the strength of this teaching the tradition has directed much sadaqah into lasting public goods: wells, mosques, schools, orchards and, in classical Islamic society, the great endowment institution of the waqf, which held property in perpetual trust for charitable ends.
Sadaqah is also urged as a remedy and a protection, given quietly to avert harm, in gratitude for relief, or on behalf of the dead. Its concealment is praised: charity given in secret is ranked in the sources above charity given openly, since it is freer of the wish to be seen.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Belongs to Tradition
Element Of
Sources
1. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition
P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.), Brill, 2005View the Source 2. Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005View the Source 3. The Qur'an
3. The Qur'an
9:60, where sadaqat is used of what the jurists classify as obligatory givingView the Source Sahih Muslim
Muslim ibn al-HajjajBook of zakat, on the acts counted as charityView the Source Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
Choose a year to see this entry's facts and connections as the atlas records them at that moment: what it held then, what it held instead, and what it had not yet adopted. Choose Present for the current record.