Zakat
Change lives with your Zakat
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What Is Zakat?
The word Zakat means “to purify”. It refers to a charitable donation of 2.5% of an individual’s assets and wealth payable each year to the poor from a range of categories of needy people.
Zakat is a foundational pillar of Islam and it has the potential to alleviate the suffering of millions of men, women and children around the world.
Pay Your ZakatCalculate Your Zakat
Giving your Zakat through Muslim Hands not only allows you to fulfill your Islamic obligation, but it also means you support our work in alleviating the root causes of poverty in developing communities around the world.
Use our handy calculator to help you calculate your Zakat and ensure that it reaches those most in need.
Calculate Your ZakatThe Impact Of Your Zakat
How Your Zakat Gave A Family Hope
When Salimata Traore's husband died, her family was left without a breadwinner, and she was forced to raise her daughter, Setou, without any support.
For widows like Salimata, life in developing countries can be especially hard. With no income or livelihood, supporting a family alone is incredibly difficult.
Luckily, her daughter Setou was sponsored by a generous donor and was accepted at the Muslim Hands School Of Excellence in Bamako, where she has been studying for a year now.
Once Setou's donor learned about her mother's dire circumstances, she was moved to do more. Her donation enabled Salimata to open her own shop selling skin and hair products, allowing her to earn an income and support her family.
Give ZakatHow Your Zakat Changed A Child's Life
When Diakaridia Samake’s father died, he and his family were left with little hope for the future. His mother struggled to raise her young family, gripped by poverty in the village of Tienfala, Mali.
So desperate was their situation that young Diakaridia had to go out to work in a bike mechanics. He was just eight years old.
Thanks to your Zakat, the Muslim Hands staff were able to enroll him in school, where he receives the best education in the region, free meals, and healthcare.
His life has been transformed, and Diakaridia is so much happier at school than he was before. An education is a passport to a brighter future full of hope and potential for children like Diakaridia.
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The Essential Zakat Guide
Zakat is the third pillar of Islam and a transformational concept that has the ability to change the world.
Zakat is intended to purify our wealth, not only physically, but also spiritually. It purifies our hearts against selfishness as well as ensuring that society's poorest are protected against hunger. and destitution.
It plays a key role in not only enshrining the rights of the poorest in the community, but it also facilitates in enabling them to gain the skills and aid needed in today’s economy to come out of a life of poverty.
Zakat also crucially builds a relationship of consideration and appreciation between different members of society by providing ongoing support from the rich to the poor.
We know that calculating your Zakat and getting your head around the basics can be sometimes difficult and for that reason, we have created a short illustrated guide.
We’ve broken down some of the most common questions and cleared up the main misconceptions about Zakat.
Read the essential Zakat guideFrequently Asked Questions
A. Every person who is sane, an adult (reached puberty), Muslim, and sahib-un-nisab must pay Zakat as a duty.
To be a sahib-un-nisab means you possess more wealth than the level of nisab for a period of one lunar year or more.
A. The nisab is the minimum value of wealth one must possess in order to pay Zakat. It is defined as the value of 87.5g of pure gold or 625g silver. Most scholars favour the lower value as it means that more people can pay Zakat and therefore there are more beneficiaries.
A. Gold and silver, including ornaments or
jewellery containing gold and/or silver
Cash held at home or in bank accounts
Stocks and shares owned directly or through
investment funds
Money lent to others
Business stock in trade and merchandise
Agricultural produce
Livestock animals such as cows, buffaloes,
goats, sheep, and camels
Produce of mines
Pensions
Property owned for investment purposes
A. You can pay your Zakat at any time, but many people chose to do so during the month of Ramadan when the reward for our good deeds is multiplied and it is easier to calculate the lunar year.
A. Yes you can. Simply calculate your Zakat payments, divide this by 12 and set up a regular gift, specifying Zakat as the type of donation.
A. For more information on our donation policy please see our ‘How Your Money is Spent’ page.
Muslim Hands was established in the UK in 1993. Muslim Hands is an international aid agency and NGO working in over 50 countries worldwide to help those affected by natural disasters, conflict and poverty. Muslim Hands Canada is a registered charity with the Canada Revenue Agency (Charity Registration No. 81126 4985 RR0001).