Zakat means giving charity to the poor. It is one of the Five Pillars of Islam.
Generally, it is mandatory for all who are able to give. It is considered to be a personal responsibility for Muslims to help those in need.
Zakat literally means ‘cleanse’ or ‘purify’.
According to most official regulations, a person should donate 2.5% of their wealth each year. There are complex rules about how zakat is calculated and how it can be spent. Many organisations around the world collect zakat to use for specific causes.
This photograph shows poor children waiting for a gift of Zakat in Faridabad, India.
Text adapted from Simple English Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0.
Waiting for Zakat by Koshy Koshy from Faridabad, Haryana, India via Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY 2.0.
