Zakah

Obligatory charity · the third pillar of Islam
Pillar 3 of IslamA duty on wealth, owed to the poor

Zakah is the obligatory charity paid from wealth. The Quran pairs it with prayer again and again and says it was part of the religion given to earlier communities. The Torah has its own laws of the tithe and of leaving the harvest for the poor, and the Gospels teach giving alms.

What it is in Islam

The Quran makes zakah a duty on property and names who may receive it. Prayer and zakah come together in many verses.

“And establish prayer and give zakah and bow with those who bow [in worship and obedience].”
“Take, [O, Muhammad], from their wealth a charity by which you purify them and cause them increase, and invoke [Allah’s blessings] upon them. Indeed, your invocations are reassurance for them. And Allah is Hearing and Knowing.”
“Zakah expenditures are only for the poor and for the needy and for those employed to collect [zakah] and for bringing hearts together [for Islam] and for freeing captives [or slaves] and for those in debt and for the cause of Allah and for the [stranded] traveler - an obligation [imposed] by Allah. And Allah is Knowing and Wise.”
“And We made them leaders guiding by Our command. And We inspired to them the doing of good deeds, establishment of prayer, and giving of zakah; and they were worshippers of Us.”
Said of earlier prophets in the Quran.
“And they were not commanded except to worship Allah, [being] sincere to Him in religion, inclining to truth, and to establish prayer and to give zakah. And that is the correct religion.”
A verse on what all the earlier communities were commanded.
Sahih al-Bukhari 1395Sahih (Bukhari)
“then teach them that Allah has made it obligatory for them to pay the Zakat from their property and it is to be taken from the wealthy among them and given to the poor.”
Narrated by Ibn Abbas. English as shown on sunnah.com.
In the earlier scriptures

Passages are the King James Version unless marked otherwise. Each carries a tag: a close parallel, a shared principle, or an interpretation (Muslim or traditional), which is a reading we offer as a reading and not as a proven fact.

Hebrew Bible and Torah
Leviticus 27:30Shared principle
“And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD’S: it is holy unto the LORD.”
A portion of the produce of the land is set apart as God’s.
Leviticus 19:9–10Close parallel
“And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the LORD your God.”
The corners of the field and the gleanings are for the poor.
“And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, neither shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. And you shall not glean your vineyard, neither shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner. I am Shema your God.”
Translation by Florentin and Tal (Open Book Publishers, 2024). The translation writes the divine name as “Shema”, the Samaritan way of saying “the Name”.
The Samaritan Torah has the same law. It reads “the sojourner” for the stranger.
“At the end of three years thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase the same year, and shalt lay it up within thy gates: And the Levite, (because he hath no part nor inheritance with thee,) and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest.”
Every third year the tithe is stored up for the Levite, the stranger, the orphan and the widow.
“At the end of [every] three years you shall bring forth all the tithe of your increase in the same year, and shall lay it up within your cities, and the Libite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, and the orphan, and the widow, that are within your cities, shall come and eat and be full, that Shema your God may bless you in all the work of your hands which you do.”
Translation by Florentin and Tal (Open Book Publishers, 2024). The translation writes the divine name as “Shema”, the Samaritan way of saying “the Name”.
The Samaritan Torah has the same law. The translation’s spelling of “Levite” as “Libite” is kept as printed.
Proverbs 19:17Shared principle
“He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD; and that which he hath given will he pay him again.”
Giving to the poor is counted as a loan to God, who repays it.
New Testament
Matthew 6:2–4Shared principle
“when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. … But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.”
Alms are to be given for God and not for show.
Luke 11:41Shared principle
“But rather give alms of such things as ye have; and, behold, all things are clean unto you.”
Giving to the poor is tied to purity. Zakah is also named a purification in the Quran (9:103).
Where this page stands: the Torah’s tithes and gleaning laws and Islamic zakah are not the same law, and we give no rates or amounts. The parallel is the principle: a duty on what a person owns, owed to the poor, the stranger, the orphan and the widow, for God’s sake.
Sources

Quran (Sahih International, via api.alquran.cloud; links go to quran.com)

Hadith (English from sunnah.com)

Hebrew Bible and New Testament (King James Version, text via bible-api.com; links go to BibleGateway)

Samaritan Pentateuch

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