الزَّكاة

ALMS-TAX (ZAKAT)

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2– Imam al-Sadiq (AS) said, 'The prayer of one who does not give the alms-tax is void, and the alms-tax of the impious is void.’
[Mishkat al-Anwar, no. 46]

3– Imam al-Sadiq (AS) said, 'The alms-tax has been prescribed as a test for the rich and an aid to the poor. If people duly paid the alms-tax on their wealth, there would not remain a single poor or needy Muslim, and all would suffice themselves through what Allah has prescribed. Verily people are only impoverished, needy, hungry and naked as a result of the sins of the wealthy.’
[al-Faqih, v. 2, p. 7, no. 1579]

4– The Prophet (SAWA) said, 'If you want Allah to enrich your wealth then give the alms-tax from it.’
[Bihar al-Anwar, v. 96, p. 23, no. 54]

5– Imam Ali (AS) said, 'Strengthen your capital by paying the alms-tax.’
[Bihar al-Anwar, v. 78, p. 60, no. 138]

6– Imam al-Hasan (AS) said, 'The giving of the alms-tax never diminishes wealth.’
[Bihar al-Anwar, v. 96, p. 23, no. 56]

7– Imam al-Baqir (AS) narrated, 'We found the following written in the book of the Prophet (SAWA): …When the alms-tax is withheld, the earth withholds all its yield of plants, fruits and minerals.’
[al-Kafi, v. 2, p. 374, no. 2]

8– Imam al-Kazim (AS) said, 'Verily Allah has fixed the alms-tax as a provision for the poor and a proliferation of your wealth.’
[al-Kafi, v. 3, p. 498, no. 6]

9– Imam al-Rida (AS) said, 'When the alms-tax is not paid, livestock die as a result.’
[Bihar al-Anwar, v. 73, p. 373, no. 8]

10– Imam al-Baqir (AS) said, 'He who refuses to pay the alms-tax, on the Day of Resurrection Allah will transform his wealth into a cobra with two venom glands that will coil itself around him and be told, 'Tighten your grip on him just as he was tight-fisted with you in the world.’ This is in accordance with Allah's verse in the Qur'an: "They will be collared with what they grudge…"
[ Qur'an 3:180]

11– Imam al-Sadiq (AS) said, 'Those who refuse to pay the alms-tax ask to be returned to the world at the time of death, as per Allah's verse in the Qur'an: "When death comes to one of them, he says, 'My Lord! Take me back, that I may act righteously in what I have left behind.”
[ Qur'an 23:99]

12– Imam al-Sadiq (AS) said, 'There are three types of people that are considered thieves: the one who refuses to pay the alms-tax, the one who spends his wife's dowry unlawfully, and the one who takes a loan with no intention to repay it.’
[Bihar al-Anwar, p. 12, no. 15]

13– Imam al-Sadiq (AS) said, 'He who refuses to pay
[as meagre an amount as] a sixteen of a dirham in alms-tax may as well die a Jew or a Christian.’
[Thawab al-A`amal, p. 281, no. 7]

14– Imam al-Sadiq (AS), with regards to Allah's verse in the Qur'an: "Charities are only for the poor...", said, 'The poor man is he who does not beg from people
[despite his poverty], the destitute lives in even harsher conditions than him, and the wretched one lives in the most straitened circumstances of all.’
[al-Kafi, v. 3, p. 501, no. 16]

15– Imam Ali (AS) said, 'The zakat of power is equity.’
[Ghurar al-Hikam, no. 5448]

16– Imam Ali (AS) said, 'The zakat of beauty is chastity.’
[Ghurar al-Hikam, no. 5449]

17– Imam Ali (AS) said, 'The zakat of prosperity is goodness to one's neighbours and maintaining relations with one's kin.’
[Ghurar al-Hikam, no. 5453]

18– Imam Ali (AS) said, 'The zakat of health is exerting oneself in Allah's obedience.’
[Ghurar al-Hikam, no. 5454]

19– Imam Ali (AS) said, 'The zakat of courage is fighting in the way of Allah.’
[Ghurar al-Hikam, no. 5455]

20– Imam Ali (AS) said, 'Fast, for that is the zakat of the body.’
[Bihar al-Anwar, v. 78, p. 99, no. 1]

21– Imam al-Sadiq (AS) said, 'Verily upon everything is its zakat, and the zakat of knowledge is to teach it to those who are worthy of it.’
[Bihar al-Anwar, p. 247, no. 77]

22– Imam al-Sadiq (AS) said, 'Good moral conduct is the zakat of bounties, intercession is the zakat of high status, ailments are the zakat of the body, amnesty is the zakat of victory, and all that you give out zakat on is protected from being snatched away from you.’
[Bihar al-Anwar, p. 268, no. 182]

23– Imam Ali (AS) said, 'He who pays the obligatory alms-tax at the end of Ramazan, Allah uses it to make up for any deficit in the alms-tax paid on his wealth.’
[Wasael al-Shi`aah , v. 6, p. 220, no. 4]

24– Imam al-Sadiq (AS) said, 'Giving the alms-tax at the end of the month of Ramazan constitutes fasting just as sending blessings on the Prophet (SAWA) at the end of the prayer completes and constitutes the prayer. Verily the one who fasts and yet intentionally does not pay the alms-tax due, his fasting is invalid.’
[al-Faqih, v. 2, p. 183,no. 2085]

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* zakat: in general Islamic terminology and specifically in Islamic jurisprudence and law, this refers to the alms-tax payable on one's wealth or property. Semantically, the word itself means 'purity' and comes from the root zaka (to purify, increase, augment, make thrive). Therefore zakat is that which is given out from something in order to purify it and increase its worth, and the traditions in this section indicate that in addition to the zakat payable on wealth, there is also a zakat payable on all other bounties of Allah that He has bestowed on man, in order to purify them, increase their worth and make them thrive. In this section, therefore, the word zakat has been left in the Arabic to differentiate it from the juristic term ‘alms-tax’ (ed.)

** termed zakat al-fitra. `Ahd al-Fitr: festival marking the end of the month of Ramazan (ed.)