Zakat Since 1984

Islamic Relief spends your zakat donations in the most effective way possible to relieve the suffering of the world’s most vulnerable people.

We have been trusted to deliver zakat donations since 1984, making us one of the longest-serving Muslim charities in the UK, Alhamdulillah!

We are on the front lines in over 30 countries, just like we have been with many major disasters since 1984, delivering food, water and emergency relief to those in desperate need.

In 2022, we helped to change the lives of over 13,283,400 people in 34 countries around the world, all thanks to your generous donations and support.

We know that when you give Zakat, you do it for the sake of Allah, out of love and obedience to the One who gave us the duty to care for those around us.

For 40 years, we have taken that sacred duty very seriously, and transformed your Zakat into someone’s lifeline in an emergency, someone’s chance to access their rights to food and water, and someone’s opportunity to break free from the poverty cycle. We spend the funds on the first category of Zakat – the poor and needy.

With four decades of expertise under our belt, we have even gone the extra mile with our Zakat Advisory board to ensure that every penny of your Zakat is spent in accordance with the Shariah (Islamic law) and as efficiently as possible. 

When you entrust us to distribute it carefully and correctly, we are accountable to you, to those who receive your zakat from us, and most importantly, we are accountable to Allah.

We take the responsibility of delivering your donations very seriously. When you give your zakat through Islamic Relief, you can feel safe in the knowledge that we are guided by Allah’s words in the Qur’an.

In Arabic, amanah means trust, honesty and loyalty. Having an amanah means having a trust or responsibility to something or someone. In Islam, amanah refers to having integrity, and using our free will to carry out our duties and responsibilities towards Allah and His creation in the correct way.  At Islamic Relief, an amanah is an obligation to deliver every donation with integrity.

Zakat is one of the 5 pillars of Islam. This means that zakat is mandatory for Muslims, along with the other sacred pillars. For every sane, adult Muslim who owns wealth over a certain amount – known as the Nisab – he or she must pay 2.5% of that wealth as zakat. The zakat of every Muslim is then distributed to those who meet the criteria to receive it.

At Islamic Relief, your zakat is distributed with the utmost care to ensure that the most vulnerable, including children, those affected by war, disease and climate disasters, have access to the help that they need.

Your Zakat donation should amount to 2.5% of your total zakatable wealth. Therefore, if your total assets (after any debts owed) amounted to $10,000, you would pay $250. Use our free and easy Zakat Calculator to calculate how much you owe.

The two main types are: 

• Zakat Al-Mal, is translated to ‘the Zakat of wealth’ and is commonly referred to as Zakat. It refers to the pillar of Islam stating that every sane, adult Muslim who owns wealth over a certain amount – known as the Nisab, must pay 2.5% of that wealth.
• Fitrana or, Zakat al-Fitr, is a charitable donation of food that must be given before Eid prayer, before the end of the month of Ramadan, for the love of Allah.

“I feel the responsibility to make sure that each and every donation reaches those who need it. We work hard to deliver to people in areas that many other organisations simply can’t reach. For me, this is an amanah (trust) that supporters like you have placed in my hands.”

Mohammed Hamza, Islamic Relief Syria