Zakat (Tax)

Zakāt (زكاة) is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. According to traditional Islamic sources it is a fard (obligatory) tax^[1] required of Muslims, amounting to about 2.5% of one's wealth over the course of a year. Slaves and horses owned by Muslims are exempt from this taxation.^[2][3]

Recipients

It is obligatory to distribute zakat among eight different categories of recipients, based on a verse in the Qur'an:

Thus we have the following categories:

It is estimated that Muslims annually donate zakat sums amounting to tens or even hundreds of billions in US dollars for needy causes.^[4]

Controversies

Non-Muslim Recipients

There is scholarly consensus (ijma`) that non-Muslims are not among those who are to benefit from Zakat.^[5][6][7][8]

There is an exception that non-Muslims can receive zakat "to attract the hearts of those inclined towards Islam", which is one of the eight categories of zakat recipients (although scholars of the Hanafi school of jurisprudence consider this category to be abrogated ^[5]), and it is permissible to give sadaqah (regular, voluntary charity, not the obligatory zakat) to poor non-Muslims. ^[9]

This has led to mainstream Islamic charities, like Islamic Relief, almost exclusively focusing their humanitarian work and funds in Muslim majority nations or areas in non-Muslim countries which are heavily populated by Muslim minorities, with noteable exceptions such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake and floods in central China.^[10] In the aftermath of the 2010 Pakistan floods, many Christian survivors were denied aid supplied by Muslim charities.^[11]

Jihadists

One of the eight purposes of zakat is "in the cause of Allah" (fi sabilillah). This is widely interpreted in Islamic jurisprudence, but invariably includes jihad. In the classic manual of Shafi'i fiqh it is for "those fighting for Allah, meaning people engaged in Islamic military operations for whom no salary has been allotted in the army roster (but who are volunteers for jihad without remuneration)."^[12][13][14] There have been numerous cases of Islamic charities all over the world funding jihad and even terrorism.^[15]

An example of modern-day conflicts where those who are participating are considered in Islam to be fighting in "the Way of Allah" and where "zakat must be spent", include, "Palestine, Kashmir, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Chad, Somalia, Cyprus, Samarqand, Bukhara, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Albania and several other occupied countries."^[16][17]

Donation and Taxation

Islamic terms are often not completely analogous to the commonly-accepted/non-Islamic concepts they are mostly associated with. In Islamic terms, zakat is both a tax and a charity, and no problem is seen with discussing it as both, along with actual voluntary Islamic charity (i.e. the sadaqah). But by its commonly-accepted definition, it is strictly a tax.

When considering compulsory taxation in most non-Islamic nations, it is charged on certain goods and is taken by the state from individual yearly earnings and then in part distributed to those within the state who are unemployed, or other public services, such as the state's military services. In essence, this tax functions similarly to zakat, with the state distributing portions of the tax revenue for welfare purposes in accordance with the benevolent values of the society.

Like taxes, zakat is a fard (obligatory) requirement from Muslims, amounting to about 2.5% of one's wealth over the course of a year. It is levied on five categories of property—food grains; fruit; camels, cattle, sheep, and goats; gold and silver; and movable goods—and is payable each year after one year’s possession.^[1]

The collection and expenditure of this zakat throughout Islam's history has been a function of the state. The compulsory payment was collected and distributed by the state under the Prophet Muhammad, the Rightly-Guided Caliphs, the later Caliphate, and is even collected and distributed by the state in some theocracies today (for example, Saudi Arabia).^[1]. The first Caliph, Abu Bakr, enforced the collection of zakat from Arab tribes that had rebelled after Muhammad's death (see Ridda Wars).

Thus a full implementation of zakat via a state apparatus makes it, in all but name, a tax. In countries where zakat is not enforced and administered by the state, an individual Muslim decides which specific causes to support, and such activity can more clearly be described as (obligatory) charitable giving. This is not to doubt the great generosity of spirit and charitable intentions of individual Muslims giving zakat even in countries that enforce it.

Further, as mentioned above, besides Zakat, Muslims also give Sadaqah, which is voluntary charity that can be given to anyone in need, and is mentioned 13 times in the Qur'an such as in the following verse:

See Also

• Zakat - A hub page that leads to other articles related to Zakat
• Accidents and Natural Disasters in the Muslim World

External links

• Islamic Relief and the Myth of Non-Discriminating Muslim Charity
• Biggest Islamic Relief revenues are from “secular” government agencies
• Aid Flotillas: Save Haiti from a cholera outbreak, not Hamas from itself
• Haiti: Islamic ‘Charity’ Means More Mosques

References