Practices
Zakat al-Mal
Charitable Practices
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Origin 622 to 632 CE
The annual obligation on accumulated wealth, and the substance of what the third Pillar requires. It falls due once a lunar year has passed over qualifying wealth that exceeds the threshold known as the nisab, set by the classical jurists at eighty-five grams of gold or five hundred and ninety-five grams of silver, or the equivalent. The two metals no longer track each other, and the choice between them changes who is liable; contemporary bodies are divided, with the silver standard producing a lower threshold and therefore a wider obligation.
The often-quoted rate of one-fortieth is the rate for monetary wealth, gold, silver and trade goods. It is not the rate for everything. Crops irrigated by rain are assessed at a tenth and those irrigated by effort at a twentieth, both on the harvest rather than annually; livestock are assessed on graduated scales in head of animals rather than by percentage; and treasure or mined wealth is assessed in the majority Sunni view at a fifth. Debt owed reduces the assessable amount. The recipients are the eight categories named in Quran 9:60, and the classical schools hold that zakat may not be given to the payer's own dependants, nor to the Prophet's descendants.
Facts
Practice
Category of PracticeSourced to the subject's own accountCharitable and obligatory: the annual levy on accumulated wealth once a lunar year has passed over the qualifying threshold, at rates that differ by the kind of wealth held. 3 Who Performs ItAll adherents of the tradition 1 ObligationObligatory on those who meet its conditions 1Tradition: Islam Solitary or CommunalPerformed alone or together 1 Status
Status TodayLiving tradition, practised today 1 Attributions
TraditionSourced to the subject's own accountIslam, the standard obligatory alms levied on wealth and savings above a set threshold, distinct from the fixed end-of-Ramadan Zakat al-Fitr. 3 Controversy
Point in DisputeSourced to the subject's own accountGold and silver no longer track each other in value, so the classical threshold set at eighty-five grams of gold or five hundred and ninety-five grams of silver now yields two different practical thresholds rather than one, and contemporary bodies are divided over which metal to apply, with the silver standard producing a lower threshold and therefore a wider circle of obligation. 3 Origins
Origin Period Place of OriginMecca and Medina, Arabia 2 The rate and thresholds are set out in the Quran and the Prophet's own lifetime practice. Scholarship and Forensics
Scholarly NoteSourced to the subject's own accountCrops irrigated by rain are assessed at a tenth and those irrigated by effort at a twentieth, both on the harvest rather than annually; livestock are assessed on graduated scales in head of animals rather than by percentage; and treasure or mined wealth is assessed in the majority Sunni view at a fifth. 3 Learn More
The Pillar of Obligatory Almsgiving
Zakat al-Mal is the obligatory annual almsgiving on accumulated wealth, one of the five pillars of Islam and, after the profession of faith and the daily prayers, the duty most frequently paired with prayer in the Qur'an, which repeatedly commands the believer to establish the prayer and give the zakat in a single breath. The word carries the sense of both purification and growth: the giving is understood to purify the remaining wealth and the giver's heart of attachment, and the portion surrendered is not framed as generosity but as a right the poor hold over the rich.
Zakat falls due on wealth that has been held for a lunar year above a threshold, the nisab, traditionally reckoned against fixed weights of gold or silver. Below that threshold no zakat is owed. The standard rate on money, trade goods and the like is one fortieth, two and a half percent, with different rates and rules for agricultural produce, livestock and mined wealth, so that the obligation is calibrated to the kind of wealth held.
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.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Belongs to Tradition
Element Of
Held Differently
Jafari law levies zakat on nine named categories, four crops and three livestock and the two coined metals, rather than on wealth in general.
Sources
1. An Introduction to Islamic Law
2. 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 3. Fiqh al-Zakah
Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Scientific Publishing Centre, King Abdulaziz University, 1969On the threshold, the differing rates by kind of wealth, and the modern forms of propertyView the Source The Qur'an
The Qur'an
The Qur'an
Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005View the Source Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
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