The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought

charity

Charity has been an integral part of Islam’s doctrinal and social fabric from the inception of the religion. In fact, almsgiving, or zakat, constitutes one of the Five Pillars of Islam. As many scholars have pointed out, even a cursory examination of the Qur’an suggests that the social context of early Islam strongly resembles an “economy of poverty.” Qur’an 93:10 instructs the Prophet never to turn away a beggar, and a hadith report attributed to the Prophet instructs believers not to turn away a beggar even if he shows up riding a horse. Concern for the poor dominated economic thought and behavior during Islam’s formative years.

Traditionally, there are two main categories of charity in Islam: zakat and ṣadaqa. Zakat is an obligatory form of giving that is due annually provided one meets certain benchmarks of accumulated wealth, including cash, property, livestock, or crops. Ṣadaqa is a voluntary charitable offering, the rendering of which signifies a Muslim’s moral excellence and is a highly valued demonstration of his or her faith and practice in Islam. The waqf, or religious endowment, represents another major type of charity in Islam. Throughout Islamic history, rulers, high officials, and other individuals have used charitable endowments to build and support a variety of social and religious institutions such as public fountains, elementary schools, colleges of Islamic law, hospitals, and Sufi lodges.

Zakat is a tax on accumulated wealth that is owned for a year, usually of 1/40th or 2.5 percent of the total. One pays only if one’s property has reached the minimum amount, termed niṣāb, and one’s home and items of personal use are exempted. For cash, property, or livestock, the standard rate is 2.5 percent, so an owner of 40 camels or cows, for example, should give one as zakat. The rules for crops differ: 10 percent is to be paid for crops that do not require irrigation and 5 percent is to be paid for those that do. Zakat must be paid to deserving recipients or causes. Recipients must be devout Muslims of good moral conduct (at least not openly committing major sins), and most Shi‘i authorities require that the recipients be Shi‘is as well. Descendants of the Prophet may not receive zakat, apparently on the logic that it would not be in keeping with their honor and dignity to do so and would be a shame for the Muslim community. Recipients cannot be relatives of the donor whom the donor would be otherwise required to help or support. Recipients must be destitute or in need, which is defined as having funds insufficient to meet their basic needs for the year. Debtors, slaves who are trying to buy their freedom, and stranded travelers are also legitimate recipients of zakat. Zakat may also be used for public welfare, such as repairing roads or bridges, building mosques, or facilitating the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. It may also be used for jihad or the support of border warriors. Most jurists allow an agent who collects zakat to take his fee from the property collected.

A second type of zakat, termed zakāt al-fiṭr, or “the zakat of breaking the fast,” is paid at the end of the month of Ramadan. The head of each household pays the equivalent of a substantial meal to the poor for each member of the household. The purpose is to allow the poor to celebrate the end of fasting. A similar form of charity occurs on the most important holy day of the Islamic calendar, ‘Id al-Adha, or the Feast of Sacrifice. On the 10th day of the 12th month of the Islamic calendar (Dhu al-Hijja), synchronized with the rituals of the pilgrimage to Mecca, Muslims sacrifice an animal—most frequently a sheep throughout the Islamic world—and give away all or part of the meat to poor Muslims.

Twelver Shi‘i charity is funded not only by zakat but also by khums, or “the fifth,” which according to Shi‘i authorities is a 20 percent tax on all legitimate income, after deductions for expenses of the individual and dependents, that should be paid to one of the leading Shi‘i jurists. The funds gathered in this manner are spent on religious education, especially the centers of learning in Najaf and Qum; support of the needy among the descendants of the Prophet, who are not allowed to receive zakat; and other public welfare projects, such as building hospitals, paying disaster relief, and so on.

Charity has always been a prominent means for rulers in the Islamic world to gain the good will of their subjects and to establish and bolster political legitimacy. The construction and repair of religious monuments in the major cities of their realms or in holy places such Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem have served as highly visible and effective propaganda. Support of the pilgrimage caravans, providing the ornate covering (kiswa) for the Ka‘ba, and outfitting and supporting border warriors were regular means for rulers to advertise their piety and devotion. Some efforts, often through the establishment of endowments, involved more direct provision of facilities to the local populace, such as the construction of mosques, water fountains (sabīl), elementary schools (kuttāb) for teaching the basics of reading and writing as well as memorization of the Qur’an, and soup kitchens, or the refurbishment of houses of worship or provision of other additions or amenities for worshippers, such as oil lamps, rugs, and facilities for washing. Examples abound, but in contemporary times the huge Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, completed in 1993 and funded primarily by public conscription, stands as a massive tribute to the late Moroccan monarch’s dedication to Islam. Other endowed institutions, such as colleges of Islamic law (madrasas) and Sufi lodges (khānaqāhs), catered to a smaller group of the population but nevertheless were viewed as important acts of generosity because of the esteem accorded to those adept in the Islamic religious sciences, and premodern rulers often provided banquets and largesse for the religious scholars or for the public during Ramadan or on other holy days.

Zakat was the most venerated and widespread source of charity in Islam in premodern and remains so in contemporary times. Annually, Muslims in different parts of the world donate millions of dollars to charitable causes by way of zakat, in addition to income tax owed to governments. In countries such as Pakistan, for example, the zakat of Sunni bank account holders is deducted from the accounts at the banks, while Shi‘i account holders are exempted, since the Shi‘is believe that zakat must be given to a spiritual leader, an imam or his representative, or in the contemporary period one of the leading Twelver Shi‘i jurists in Najaf or Qum. These charities and acts of philanthropy are in many places an informal process. Monies are rendered to local mosques, schools, soup kitchens, nurseries, hospitals, and other socially beneficial causes.

As in many other domains of ethical importance in Islam, the onset of modernity and its accompanying technologies of organization have presented both daunting challenges and exciting opportunities for Islamic charity. The major challenge confronting Islamic charity in the contemporary world is that of reconfiguring premodern categories and taxonomies of giving in relation to contemporary technologies and practices of philanthropy in the global economy. There is no shortage of enthusiasm for religiously motivated charity among Muslims around the world. However, much remains to be done to establish a robust system for the collection, monitoring, and distribution of funds generated through charity in a formally structured, cost-efficient, and socially productive fashion. A major part of the problem has to do with the informal mechanisms of giving that continue to dominate the landscape of Muslim charity. While informal networks of collecting and distributing philanthropic funds, such as within families or through local mosques, are highly effective means of cultivating community ties and solidarity, they are less effective in consolidating a centralized, institutionally grounded culture of charity that might propel more macro-level projects of social justice such as poverty alleviation and sustainable development. In order to channel the outstanding potential for philanthropic activity into the work of sustaining long-term projects of social justice, practices of Islamic charity must be ensconced in and supported by modern institutions, organizational structures, and technologies of philanthropy.