---
title: Zakat and sadaqah
summary: In Islam, zakat is a required yearly payment on wealth above a set threshold, owed to eight groups the Qur’an names. Sadaqah is voluntary giving of any kind, and its lasting form, sadaqah jariyah, keeps benefiting people long after the gift is made.
tradition: Islam
origin: The Qur’an, which names zakat’s recipients in verse 9:60, and the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad
practice: A yearly obligation of 2.5 percent of qualifying wealth, a gift of food at the end of Ramadan, and voluntary gifts of money, time or kindness, including lasting gifts such as wells, schools and endowments
lens: Zakat is a recurring duty that moves wealth to people in need every year, and its recipients include debtors and people held in bondage, whose freedom it helps buy. Ongoing charity and endowments reward gifts that keep producing good, so the tradition values lasting institutions as well as relief.
sources:
  - title: Surah At-Tawbah 9:60
    publisher: Quran.com
    url: https://quran.com/at-tawbah/60
  - title: What is Zakat
    publisher: National Zakat Foundation
    year: 2021
    url: https://nzf.org.uk/knowledge/what-is-zakat
  - title: Zakat and your family
    publisher: National Zakat Foundation
    year: 2023
    url: https://nzf.org.uk/knowledge/zakat-and-your-family/
  - title: What is Zakat and how to pay it
    publisher: Islamic Relief Worldwide
    url: https://islamic-relief.org/zakat/
  - title: Sadaqah
    publisher: Islamic Relief Worldwide
    url: https://islamic-relief.org/sadaqah/
  - title: Sadaqah jariyah
    publisher: Islamic Relief Worldwide
    url: https://islamic-relief.org/sadaqah/sadaqah-jariyah/
  - title: Sahih Muslim 1631, The Book of Wills
    publisher: Sunnah.com
    url: https://sunnah.com/muslim:1631
  - title: Waqf (endowment)
    publisher: Islamic Relief Worldwide
    url: https://islamic-relief.org/waqf-endowment/
review: draft
---

## What it is

*Zakat* is one of the five pillars of Islam, the core practices of the faith. The word comes from an Arabic root associated with growing, increasing and purifying. Once a Muslim’s wealth has reached a minimum threshold, called the *nisab*, and a lunar year has passed, they owe 2.5 percent of their qualifying wealth.

The Qur’an names who may receive it, in verse 9:60: the poor, the needy, those who collect and administer it, those whose hearts are to be won over, the freeing of people from slavery, people in debt, the cause of God, and stranded travelers. Rules about giving to relatives differ between schools of Islamic law. The National Zakat Foundation notes that eligible siblings and other relatives may receive zakat, while restrictions apply to close relatives whom the giver must support. At the end of Ramadan, Muslims who have the means also give *zakat al-fitr*, a gift of food made before the prayer that marks the festival of Eid.

## Sadaqah

*Sadaqah* is voluntary charity, given in any amount and at any time. It is not limited to money: the charity Islamic Relief Worldwide notes that a smile or a helping hand can count as sadaqah.

One form is singled out. In a saying recorded in the collection *Sahih Muslim*, the Prophet Muhammad taught that when a person dies their deeds come to an end, except three: a recurring charity, knowledge that benefits others, and a pious child who prays for them. That recurring charity, *sadaqah jariyah*, covers gifts that go on helping, such as a well, a school, a hospital, a planted tree or a skill taught to someone.

The *waqf*, or charitable endowment, gives that idea an institutional form. A donor sets aside an asset, such as land, a building or cash, so that the asset stays whole and its returns go to good works. The legal form appears to date from the ninth century, and within about a hundred years endowments were supporting places of learning and hospitals across the Islamic world.

## Through the source lens

Charitology’s depth scale is a modern frame, and zakat has its own logic of obligation and purification. Still, the recipients the Qur’an names run from relief for the poor to the repair of a life, as in clearing a debt or ending someone’s bondage. Sadaqah jariyah and the waqf reward giving that lasts, the kind that builds and sustains institutions. Zakat is the duty, and sadaqah in all its forms is the voluntary good built on top of it.