Zakat is one of the five pillars of Islam and is the compulsory giving of one’s wealth to charity – with the potential to ease the suffering of millions around the world.
This obligatory payment is made by qualifying Muslims, whose personal wealth exceeds the nisab threshold, and the payable Zakat percentage amounts to 2.5% of wealth above the threshold.
“AND BE STEADFAST IN PRAYER AND REGULAR IN CHARITY: AND WHATEVER GOOD YE SEND FORTH FOR YOUR SOULS BEFORE YOU, YE SHALL FIND IT WITH ALLAH.”
(Qur’an 2:110)
As one of the five pillars of Islam, Zakat is an important part of being a Muslim as this purifies the person’s wealth. In Islamic culture, caring for those in need is given great importance and to pay Zakat pleases Allah (SWT). This is just the same as the need to look after and respect your elders, which in Muslim culture is one of the most crucial values you can have.
While we may be fortunate not to worry about where our next meal is coming from, or whether we will live to see the sunrise in the morning when we go to bed at night, others are not so fortuitous. Around the world and even right here in the United Kingdom, many are living without basic necessities. They are going without food and water, warm clothing or somewhere safe and comfortable to sleep – it is for this reason why Zakat is so important.
Your Zakat donation will be used to support those most in need, with funds used to distribute supplies such as food, hygiene and medical packs, clothing and more. Your donations are also used to support any of ILM’s appeals that you permit your donation to be used for, such as supporting orphaned children and helping families find a way to earn a living. These are just some of the many appeals run by ILM that you may wish to include as part of your Zakat donation, or make a separate payment for.
As outlined in the Holy Qur’an, Zakat can only be received by a select number of people who should fall into one of the below eight categories:
However, you are not permitted to give your Zakat to a member of your immediate family (someone who you would otherwise be responsible for) even if they would qualify through any of the above categories. As you are deemed to be responsible for looking after them, you cannot give your Zakat payment to that person. This includes your wife, sibling, parent or child. A woman’s husband, however, can receive Zakat from his wife as she is not expected to be responsible for him from a financial perspective.
There are other exceptions that are covered on our Zakat rules page. Should you have any other queries, we recommend speaking to your local imam.
Nisab is the threshold that is used to determine whether a Muslim is deemed to have enough personal wealth to qualify to make a Zakat payment. Our Zakat calculator can be used on gold and silver nisab values, helping you to calculate the Zakat on cash in the bank and at home, as well as other assets in your possession (including gold, silver, shares, pensions and property owned for investment reasons i.e. to make a profit).
Nisab is based on the value of either 87.48g of gold or 612.36g of silver. Muslims can choose which of the nisab values to use when calculating their owed amount. As the values of gold and silver are constantly changing, this means that the nisab for Zakat 2021 will only be correct as of the day you are planning to pay.
Our Zakat calculator will take this into account and automatically update the values of gold and silver, depending on which value you choose to use to calculate your Zakat.
We give Zakat to purify our wealth, giving 2.5% of our expendable wealth to those who are most in need. Before you calculate the Zakat owed on your salary, your wealth should exceed the nisab threshold and have done for at least a year. When this is the case, you should consider the money that you have saved, both in cash and in a bank account, as well as any money that is owed to you.
Our quick and simple Zakat calculator below automatically works out the Zakat you are owed when you enter in the relevant fields. You can then donate your owed Zakat amount to ILM via our donations page.
ILM uses your Zakat in the most effective way possible to relieve the suffering of the world’s most vulnerable people.
