The Pillar of Obligatory Almsgiving

Zakat al-Mal is the obligatory annual almsgiving on accumulated wealth, one of the five pillars of Islam and, after the profession of faith and the daily prayers, the duty most frequently paired with prayer in the Qur'an, which repeatedly commands the believer to establish the prayer and give the zakat in a single breath. The word carries the sense of both purification and growth: the giving is understood to purify the remaining wealth and the giver's heart of attachment, and the portion surrendered is not framed as generosity but as a right the poor hold over the rich.

Zakat falls due on wealth that has been held for a lunar year above a threshold, the nisab, traditionally reckoned against fixed weights of gold or silver. Below that threshold no zakat is owed. The standard rate on money, trade goods and the like is one fortieth, two and a half percent, with different rates and rules for agricultural produce, livestock and mined wealth, so that the obligation is calibrated to the kind of wealth held.