Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Zakat and Sadaqah: Difference between revisions

The terms [[Zakat]] (obligatory tax) and Sadaqah (voluntary charity) are sometimes used interchangeably in Islamic literature, with some sources listing zakat as covering also voluntary acts of charity. Although Islamic scholars find Arabic entymologies for both terms, in fact zakat from its Arabic spelling زكاة clearly falls into a class of loan words from Aramaic which also includes [[sala]] صلاة, while the use of "sadaqa" صدقة to mean "alms" for the poor (voluntarily given as an act of religious faith) finds its antecedent in the Aramaic of the Jewish Targum Onqelos. In terms of Islamic theology, the zakat is a tax incumbent on all Muslims, assessed as a percentage of wealth on various possessions such as land and crops. Its main purpose is to support the Muslim poor, but it may also be used for other pursuits of the Islamic State such as [[Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Jihad|jihad]]. The payment of zakat is one of the 5 [[pillars]] of Islam, paying it is thus [[fard|mandatory]] for the believer, and denying the necessity of its payment constitutes an act of [[kufr]] or unbelief.