Zakat is the Arabic word for charity. Muslims are obligated to give 2.5% of their total annual savings in charity each year, provide those savings exceed the value of 87.5 grams of gold or 612 grams of silver. This minimum threshold for Zakat is known as Nisab in Arabic.

Zakat is exempted on live-in property, on mortgage loans, and on assets. It is only applicable to one’s savings. Business owners are also required under Shariah to pay Zakat on profits and stocks.

Zakat is one of the five pillars of Islam, and it’s significance is established in the following Quranic verse:

“Take from their money a charity to cleanse them and purify them” – 9:103.

Every adult, mentally stable, free and financially able Muslim must pay Zakat to support a certain category of people. These people are identified in a Quranic verse as follows:

“The alms are only for the poor and the needy, and those who collect them, and those whose hearts are to be reconciled, and to free the captives and the debtors, and for the cause of Allah, and (for) the wayfarers; a duty imposed by Allah. Allah is knower, Wise.” – 9:60

There are 8 categories for spending Zakat:

• Al-Fuqara (The poor)

Fuqara are the people who live below the poverty line and don’t have enough means to live a normal life like others. They deserve your zakat in order to meet the daily necessities of their lives.

• Al-Masakin (The needy)

Masakin are extremely poor and needy people. These people don’t have any possessions or income. Your zakat money can help them in improving their living condition.

• Zakat collectors

Zakat can be given to the people who are authorized to collect and distribute it among the needy and poor. It includes the trustworthy institutions and NGOS who are working to help underprivileged Muslim communities.

• Those whose hearts can be reconciled

Those who are newly converted to Islam are eligible to receive zakat (if they are needy).

• Freeing captives

Slavery is prohibited in many parts of the world but there are still some places where people are trafficked and kept as slaves.

• Those in debt

Zakat can be given to pay off debts of someone who cannot repay on his own. However, one must make sure that the money borrowed by debtor is not used for any un-Islamic or wrong purpose.

• In the path of Allah

Those who are striving in the path of Allah are entitled to receive your zakat.

• Wayfarer (Travelers)

Zakat can be given to a traveller who is left alone in a foreign land and is in need of money to get back to his destination or to fulfil his objective of traveling.

We send 100% of Zakat donations to the poor and needy.