Zakat

The practice

Zakat is the obligatory almsgiving of Islam, the third of its five pillars. The word means purification and growth. A Muslim whose savings pass a threshold called the nisab gives a set portion of that wealth each year, most commonly two and a half percent.

How it is kept

The Qur'an names who receives it: the poor, the needy, those in debt, the traveller, and others in hardship. Zakat is calculated on held wealth such as savings, gold, and trade goods, and it is often given in Ramadan, when many Muslims settle their year's account.

What it means

Zakat rests on a claim about ownership: wealth is a trust from God, and a share of it belongs by right to the poor. Giving is therefore not generosity but justice, and it purifies what remains by separating out what was never fully the giver's to keep.