Muslims claim that zakat, a word often used together with salaat in the Qur’an, is a religious charitable donation to help the needy. Not surprisingly, the Qur’an’s usage of this term is at odds with how Muslims understand zakat.
This article is an excerpt from my book “Will You Not Reason?” which can be downloaded for free here. I give credit to Brother Gerrans for a lot of ideas presented in this work. You can read and download his entire work for free. All translations used in this article are from The Qur’an: A Complete Revelation.
Those who fulfil God’s covenant
Is then he who knows that what is sent down to thee from thy Lord is the truth like him who is blind? There take heed but those of insight:
Those who fulfil the covenant of God, and break not the agreement,
And who join what God commanded to be joined, and fear their Lord, and dread the evil of the reckoning,
And who are patient seeking the face of their Lord, and uphold the duty, and spend of what We have provided them, secretly and openly, and they avert evil with good: those have the good final abode:
(13:19-22)
The above verse describes those who fulfil God’s covenant as those “who join what God commanded to be joined.” We find an inverse statement regarding those who break God’s covenant as those who “sever what God has commanded to be joined”.
But those who break the covenant of God after its agreement, and sever what God has commanded to be joined, and work corruption in the land: those have the curse, and they have the evil abode.
(13:25)
The Qur’an uses the phrase “uphold the salaat and give the zakat” a total of 24 times in which the two terms salaat and zakat are joined together. It is my view that those who fulfil God’s covenant maintain the connection between salaat and zakat whereas those who break God’s covenant sever their connection. Since we have already established that salaat means the duty to implement a specific contextual command, we will now study the surrounding contexts where the phrase “uphold the salaat and give the zakat” occurs to see if we can derive a contextual value of zakat. Brother Gerrans translates this phraseas uphold the duty and to render the purity. As we go through each occurrence of this phrase, we shall see that it means to implement a specific commandment and to be sincere in its application i.e. those who wish to fulfil God’s covenant must be pure in intention when upholding the duty.
Recite the Writ
The first occurrence of the phrase “uphold the salaat and give the zakat” is in reference to the original recipients of the Writ; the children of Israel.
O children of Israel: remember My favour wherewith I favoured you; and fulfil the covenant with Me, and I will fulfil the covenant with you; and Me — be you in fear of Me.
And believe in what I have sent down confirming what is with you, and be not the first to deny it; and sell not My proofs at a cheap price; and Me — be you in prudent fear of Me.
And clothe not truth with vanity, nor conceal the truth when you know.
And uphold the duty, and render the purity, and be lowly with the lowly.
Enjoin you virtue upon mankind, and forget yourselves when you recite the Writ? Will you then not use reason!
And seek help in patience and duty; and it is hard save for the humble:
Those who consider that they will meet their Lord, and that to Him they are returning.
(2:40-46)
The duty in this context is to recite the Writ. God is reproving the children of Israel for hypocrisy by “enjoining virtue upon mankind but forgetting themselves” i.e. preaching what they are themselves not practicing. God commands them to fear Him alone and not to abandon His guidance in favor of worldly gain. Thus the children of Israel are not only to uphold the duty to recite the Writ but to also give the zakat by being pure in intention. The final occurrence of the phrase “uphold the salaat and give the zakat”confirms our understanding by referencing those given the Writ before, the children of Israel and the Christians, and exhorting them to uphold the recitation of the Writ and to be pure in intention.
Those who ignore warning among the doctors of the Law and the idolaters were not to desist until the clear evidence came to them:
A messenger from God, reciting purified pages
In which are upright writs.
And those given the Writ were divided only after the clear evidence had come to them.
And they were commanded only to serve God, sincere to Him in doctrine, inclining to truth; and to uphold the duty, and to render the purity — and that is the doctrine of the upright.
Those who ignore warning among the doctors of the Law and the idolaters will be in the fire of Gehenna, they abiding eternally therein — it is they who are the worst of creatures.
Those who heed warning and do righteous deeds — it is they who are the best of creatures,
Their reward is with their Lord: gardens of perpetual abode beneath which rivers flow, they abiding eternally therein forever; God is pleased with them, and they pleased with Him; that is for him who fears his Lord.
(98:1-8)
In the next verse, the believers are being exhorted to uphold the duty of reciting the Writ and to be pure in their intention.
Thy Lord knows that thou standest nearly two-thirds of the night, or a half of it, or a third of it, as does a number of those with thee. And God determines the night and the day. He knew that you would not calculate it, and has turned towards you: — so recite what is made easy of the Qur’an. He knows that there will be some sick among you, and others travelling in the earth in search of the bounty of God, and others fighting in the cause of God: — so recite what is made easy thereof, and uphold the duty, and render the purity, and lend to God a goodly loan. And what good you send ahead for your souls — you will find it with God, better and greater in reward. And ask forgiveness of God; God is forgiving and merciful.
(73:20)
Uphold God’s agreement
And when We took an agreement of the children of Israel: “Serve not save God; and towards parents good conduct, and towards kin, and the fatherless, and the poor; and speak kindly to men; and uphold the duty, and render the purity,” then you turned away save a few among you; and you are averse.
And when We took your agreement: “Shed not your blood, and turn not your own out of your homes,” then you affirmed and bore witness;
Then are you those who kill your own, and turn a faction among you out of their homes, assisting one another against them in sin and enmity; and if they come to you as captives, you ransom them, but unlawful for you was their expulsion. Do you believe in part of the Writ and deny part? Then what is the reward of him among you who does that save disgrace in the life of this world? And on the Day of Resurrection they are sent back to the harshest punishment; and God is not unmindful of what you do.
Those are they who bought the life of this world at the price of the Hereafter, so the punishment will not be lightened for them, nor will they be helped.
(2:83-86)
Here the duty is to uphold the agreement made with God. God accuses the children of Israel of cherry picking the commandments of God; “Do you believe in part of the Writ and deny part”i.e. they were not being pure in their intention of upholding the agreement made with God.
In the next occurrence of this phrase, we see a repeat of the same theme of breaking the agreement of God and of changing the meanings of words by twisting them from their places — an example of being insincere in applying God’s commands — as further evidence that zakat means to be pure in intention when upholding the duty.
And God took an agreement of the children of Israel; and We raised up among them twelve leaders. And God said: “I am with you if you uphold the duty, and render the purity, and believe in My messengers, and support them, and lend to God a goodly loan. I will remove from you your evil deeds, and make you enter gardens beneath which rivers flow. But whoso among you denies after that has strayed from the right path.”
So for their violation of their agreement We cursed them and made their hearts hard. They twist words from their places, and have forgotten a portion of that they were reminded of. And thou wilt not cease to find treachery among them save a few among them; but pardon thou them, and forbear thou; God loves the doers of good.
(5:12-13)
Obey the messenger
O you who heed warning: say not: “Attend thou to us,” but say: “Look thou upon us,” and listen; and for the false claimers of guidance is a painful punishment.
Neither those who ignore warning among the doctors of the Law nor the idolaters wish that there be sent down upon you any good from your Lord, but God chooses for His mercy whom He wills; and God is possessor of tremendous bounty.
What proof We abolish or cause to be forgotten, We bring one better than it or the like thereof; knowest thou not that God is over all things powerful?
Knowest thou not that God, to Him belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth? And you have, besides God, neither ally nor helper.
If you desire to ask your messenger as Moses was asked before: — and whoso exchanges faith for denial has strayed from the right path —
Many among the doctors of the Law wish to turn you back as atheists after your faith out of envy from their souls after the truth has become clear to them. But pardon and forbear until God brings His command; God is over all things powerful.
And uphold the duty, and render the purity; and what good you send ahead for your souls, you will find it with God; God sees what you do.
(2:104-110)
The doctors of the law — the priests of religions — wished to divert the believers from the path of God out of envy. They were aware that the Qur’an was from God but out of spite — and to preserve their status — they denied it. They approached Muhammad with arrogance and questioned him not with a view to learn, but to intimidate. In other words, they were insincere in obeying God. The believers are being commanded to not follow their example but to uphold the duty of obeying the messenger and to be pure in intention i.e. to come to the messenger of God with a sincere attitude to learn.
Desist from usury
Those who consume usury will not stand save as stands he whom the satan buffets with his touch; for it is that they say: “Commerce is but the same as usury,” when God has made commerce lawful and forbidden usury! And he to whom came the admonition from his Lord, and desisted: he has what is past, and his case is with God. But whoso returns: those are the companions of the Fire; therein they abide eternally.
God eliminates usury, and increases charity; and God loves not every ingrate and sinner.
Those who heed warning and do righteous deeds, and uphold the duty, and render the purity: they have their reward with their Lord; and no fear will be upon them, nor will they grieve.
O you who heed warning: be in prudent fear of God; and give up what remains of usury, if you be believers.
(2:275-278)
So, for injustice among those who hold to Judaism, We made unlawful to them good things which had been lawful to them, and for their turning away from the path of God much,
And for their taking of usury when they had been forbidden it, and their consuming the wealth of men in vanity; and We have prepared for the false claimers of guidance among them a painful punishment.
But those firm in knowledge and the believers among them believe in what is sent down to thee, and what was sent down before thee, as do the upholders of the duty, and the renderers of the purity, and the believers in God and the Last Day — those will We give a great reward.
(4:160-162)
The duty here is to desist from usury. Those dealing in usury hide behind technicalities by arguing that “commerce is but the same as usury”. The fact of the matter is that they are not being sincere in their duty to desist from usury.
Uphold the Doctrine
It is not virtue that you turn your faces towards the East and the West. But virtue is: one who believes in God, and the Last Day, and the angels, and the Writ, and the prophets, and gives wealth in spite of love of it to relatives, and the fatherless, and the needy, and the wayfarer, and those who ask, and to manumit slaves; and who upholds the duty, and renders the purity; and those who keep their covenant when they make a covenant; and the patient in affliction and adversity, and during conflict: those are they who are sincere; and it is they who are those of prudent fear.
(2:177)
In the above verse, God is making clear that virtue is not to turn one’s face towards the East and the West but virtue is to believe in the doctrine of God and to do good works. The mark of an insincere man is that he puts emphasis on outward actions — to impress his peers — instead of actually upholding the commandments of God. Thus, in this instance the duty is to is to uphold the doctrine of God and to be pure in one’s intention to please God alone.
O you who heed warning: whoso among you renounces his doctrine: God will bring a people whom He will love, and who will love Him: humble towards the believers; stern towards the false claimers of guidance; striving in the cause of God, and fearing not the reproach of a critic. That is the bounty of God He gives to whom He wills; and God is encompassing and knowing.
Your ally is but God and His messenger, and those who heed warning — those who uphold the duty, and render the purity; and they are lowly —
And whoso takes God and His messenger and those who heed warning as ally: the party of God, they will be the victors.
O you who heed warning: take not those who take your doctrine in mockery and fun among those given the Writ before you and the atheists as allies; and be in prudent fear of God if you be believers.
And when you call to the duty they take it in mockery and fun, for it is that they are people who do not reason!
(5:54-58)
The duty in this scenario is to uphold the doctrine of God and not to renounce it. The believers must give the purity to the intention of following God’s doctrine alone and not be like those who take His doctrine in mockery and fun.
Uphold the treaty
And when the inviolable months have passed, then kill the idolaters wheresoever you find them, and seize them, and restrain them, and lie in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they repent, and uphold the duty, and render the purity, then let them go their way; God is forgiving and merciful.
And if one of the idolaters seeks thy protection, then grant thou him protection until he hears the words of God; then convey thou him to his place of security — is it not that they are people who know not!
How can there be for the idolaters a covenant with God and with His messenger save those with whom you made a covenant at the inviolable place of worship? — so long as they take a straight path with you, then take a straight path with them; God loves those of prudent fear —
How, when if they get the better of you, they observe neither pact of kinship nor obligation to protect? They please you with their mouths, but their hearts refuse; and most of them are perfidious.
They have sold the proofs of God at a cheap price and turned away from His path; evil is what they did.
And they regard towards a believer neither pact of kinship, nor obligation to protect; and it is they who are the transgressors.
But if they repent, and uphold the duty, and render the purity, then are they your brethren in doctrine; and We set out and detail the proofs for people who know.
And if they renege on their oaths after their covenant and revile your doctrine, then fight the leaders of denial: they have no oaths that they might desist.
Will you not fight a people who broke their oaths, and purposed to turn the Messenger out, and began against you the first time? Do you fear them? Then God is worthier that you should fear Him, if you be believers.
Fight them! God will punish them at your hands and disgrace them, and help you against them, and heal the breasts of people who believe
And remove the wrath of their hearts; and God relents towards whom He wills; and God is knowing and wise.
If you think that you will be left when God knows not those among you who have striven, and have taken — besides God, and His messenger, and the believers — no confidant[…]. And God is aware of what you do.
It is not for the idolaters to inhabit the places of worship of God, bearing witness against themselves to denial; those: their works are vain, and in the Fire do they abide eternally.
He only inhabits the places of worship of God who believes in God and the Last Day, and upholds the duty, and renders the purity, and fears not save God; and it may be that those are of the guided.
(9:5-18)
The duty in this scenario was to sincerely uphold the treaty and protect the other party, something which the idolaters failed to do. However, if they repented and took up their oaths once again and were sincere in upholding them, the believers were to leave them alone.
Obey the messenger
And among them are those who hinder the Prophet, saying: “He is an ear.” Say thou: “An ear of good for you,” — he believes in God, and he believes the believers — “and a mercy for those among you who heed warning.” And those who hinder the messenger of God, for them is a painful punishment.
They swear by God to you to please you; but God and His messenger — worthier is it that they should please Him, if they be believers!
Know they not that whoso works against God and His messenger, for him is the fire of Gehenna, wherein he abides eternally? That is the Tremendous Disgrace.
The waverers fear lest a sūrah be sent down against them, proclaiming what is in their hearts; say thou: “You may mock; God will bring forth what you fear.”
And if thou askest them, they will say: “We were but discoursing vainly and playing.” Say thou: “Was it at God and His proofs and His messenger that you were mocking?”
Make no excuses; you have denied after your faith; if We pardon a number of you, a number of you will We punish because they were lawbreakers.
The wavering men and the wavering women are alike: they enjoin perversity, and they forbid what is fitting, and they close their hands; they have forgotten God, so He has forgotten them. The waverers: they are the perfidious.
And God has promised the wavering men, and the wavering women, and the atheists, the fire of Gehenna, they abiding eternally therein; it is sufficient for them. And God has cursed them; and they have a lasting punishment.
Like those before you, stronger than you in might and greater in wealth and children: they enjoyed their lot. And you have enjoyed your lot as they enjoyed their lot who were before you; and you have discoursed vainly like those discoursed vainly; those: their works are vain in the World and the Hereafter; and it is they who are the losers.
Has not the report of those before them come to them: the people of Noah, and ʿĀd, and Thamūd, and the people of Abraham, and the people of Madyan, and the cities thrown down? Their messengers brought them clear signs; and God wronged them not, but they wronged their souls.
And the believing men and the believing women are allies of one another: they enjoin what is fitting, and forbid perversity, and uphold the duty, and render the purity, and obey God and His messenger; those: God will have mercy on them; God is exalted in might and wise.
And God has promised the believing men and the believing women gardens beneath which rivers flow — they abiding eternally therein — and goodly dwellings in gardens of perpetual abode; and approval from God is greater; that is the Great Achievement.
(9:67-72)
In this scenario, the waverers were hindering the messenger; they were mocking and secretly working against him. Thus the duty here is to obey and help the messenger of God. Again the value of zakat as purity of intention fits perfectly. The believers are being exhorted to be pure in their intention to obey the messenger and to be not like the waverers “who swear by God to please you” while mocking the messenger.
Serve God alone
And We sent not before thee any messenger save We revealed to him that: “There is no god save I; so serve Me.”
(21:25)
And We gave him Isaac, and Jacob in addition; and each We made righteous,
And We made them leaders, guiding by Our command, and revealed to them the doing of good deeds, and the upholding of duty, and the rendering of the purity; and Us they served.
(21:72-73)
This, your community, is one community, and I am your Lord; so serve Me.
But they divided their affair between them; all are returning to Us.
(21:92-93)
The entire theme of Chapter 21 is around serving God alone. Those who divided their affair between them did not have purity of intention; they did not wish to serve God alone.
Fight the aggressors
Hast thou not considered those to whom it was said: “Restrain your hands; and uphold the duty, and render the purity,” but when fighting is prescribed for them, then a faction among them fears men like the fear of God, or a stronger fear? And they said: “Our Lord: why hast Thou prescribed fighting for us? Oh, that Thou wouldst but delay us a little while!” Say thou: “Little is the enjoyment of the World”; and the Hereafter is better for him who is in prudent fear; and you will not be wronged a hair upon a date-stone.
(4:77)
God defends those who heed warning; God loves not every treacherous ingrate.
Leave is given those who are fought because they were wronged: — and God is able to help them —
Those who have been turned out of their homes without cause save that they said: “Our Lord is God.” And were God not to repel some people by means of others, pious communities would be destroyed, and trade, and duties, and places of worship wherein the name of God is remembered much[…]. But God will help him who helps Him: — God is strong and exalted in might —
Those who, if We establish them in the land, uphold the duty and render the purity, and enjoin what is fitting, and forbid perversity; and to God belongs the final outcome of matters.
(22:38-41)
In the above two scenarios, the duty is to fight the aggressors, fearing God alone. To be sincere in upholding this duty means to not fight the enemy half-heartedly but to stand firm and place our trust in God alone. The same theme is repeated in the last verse of this chapter.
And strive for God with the striving due Him. He has chosen you, and has not placed upon you in doctrine any distress — the creed of your father Abraham. He named you those submitting before, and in this, that the Messenger might be a witness to you, and that you might be witnesses to men. So uphold the duty, and render the purity, and hold fast to God; He is your protector. Then excellent is the Protector! And excellent is the Helper!
(22:78)
Glorify and remember God
In houses God has given leave to be raised, and His name to be remembered therein, there give Him glory therein in the mornings and the evenings
Men whom neither trade nor commerce divert from the remembrance of God and upholding the duty and rendering the purity. They fear a day wherein the hearts and the eyes will turn about,
That God might reward them for the best of what they did, and increase them out of His bounty; and God gives provision to whom He wills without reckoning.
(24:36-38)
And uphold the duty and render the purity, and obey the Messenger, that you might obtain mercy.
(24:56)
O you who heed warning: let ask leave of you those whom your right hands possess and those who have not reached puberty among you at three times: before the duty of the dawn, and when you lay aside your garments at noon, and after the duty of the night: three times of nakedness for you; you and they do no wrong beyond them, some of you moving about among others of you. Thus God makes plain to you the proofs; and God is knowing and wise.
(24:58)
The whole of chapter 24 is cut of the same cloth: remembering God and upholding this duty at specific times of the day. Therefore, to give the zakat is to be pure in our intention to remember God being sincere to Him and to let neither “trade nor commerce divert from the remembrance of God”.
Do good works
ṭā sīn Those are the proofs of the Qur’an, and of a Clear Writ
As guidance and glad tidings for the believers,
Those who uphold the duty, and render the purity, and of the Hereafter they are certain.
Those who believe not in the Hereafter, We have made their deeds fair to them, so they wander blindly.
(27:1-4)
alif lām mīm
Those are the proofs of the Wise Writ
As guidance and mercy for the doers of good:
Those who uphold the duty, and render the purity, and of the Hereafter are certain:
Those are upon guidance from their Lord; and it is they who are the successful.
(31:2-5)
The duty here is to do good works and to be pure in one’s intention. The elites — the vast majority of whom are idolaters because they serve the idols of power and wealth and deny the Hereafter — commit evil deeds under the guise of good works i.e. they are not pure in their intentions.
Say thou: “I am only a mortal like you. It is revealed to me that your God is One God. So take a straight path to Him, and ask forgiveness of Him!” And woe to the idolaters:
Those who render not the purity, and of the Hereafter they are deniers!
Those who heed warning and do righteous deeds: they have a reward unending.
(41:6-8)
Converse confidentially to promote virtue
Hast thou not considered those who were forbidden private conversation then return to what they were forbidden and converse confidentially in sin and enmity and disobedience to the Messenger? And when they come to thee, they greet thee with a greeting wherewith God never greeted thee; and they say within themselves: “Oh, that God but punished us for what we say!” Sufficient for them is Gehenna: they will burn therein; and evil is the journey’s end!
O you who heed warning: when you converse confidentially, converse not confidentially in sin and enmity, and disobedience to the Messenger, but converse confidentially in virtue and prudent fear. And be in prudent fear of God to whom you will be gathered.
Private conversation is but of the satan, that he might grieve those who heed warning; but he will not harm them at all save by the leave of God. And in God let the believers place their trust.
O you who heed warning: when it is said to you: “Make room in the assemblies,” then make room; God will make room for you. And when it is said: “Arise,” then arise. God will raise those who heed warning and those given knowledge among you in degree. And God is aware of what you do.
O you who heed warning: when you converse confidentially with the Messenger, send ahead charity before your private conversation. That is better for you, and purer. But if you find not the means — God is forgiving and merciful.
Fear you to send ahead charity before your private conversation? Then when you do not — and God has turned towards you — then uphold the duty and render the purity, and obey God and His messenger. And God is aware of what you do.
Hast thou not considered those who take as allies a people with whom God is wroth? They are neither of you nor of them; and they swear to lies, and they know.
God has prepared for them a severe punishment; evil is what they did.
They took their oaths as a cover, and turned away from the path of God; so for them is a humiliating punishment.
Their wealth and their children will avail them nothing against God; those: they are the companions of the Fire, therein they abide eternally.
(58:8-17)
The narrative treats of those who “converse confidentially in sin and enmity and disobedience to the Messenger”. The duty then is to “converse confidentially in virtue and prudent fear”. We see also a reference to those who “took their oaths as a cover” i.e. the hypocrites who pretend to obey the messenger but plot against him in secret. The meaning of zakat as being pure in intention slots in perfectly in this case. The believers are to hold to the duty and to be sincere in it.
Be modest
O wives of the Prophet: whoso among you commits manifest sexual immorality, for her the punishment is doubled; and that is easy for God.
And whoso among you is humbly obedient to God and His messenger, and works righteousness, We will give her her reward twice over; and We have prepared for her a noble provision.
O wives of the Prophet: you are not like any among women. If you are in prudent fear, then be not soft in speech lest he in whose heart is disease should desire; but speak a fitting word,
And stay within your houses; and display not yourselves with the display of the former time of ignorance; and uphold the duty and render the purity, and obey God and His messenger. God but intends to remove abomination from you — people of the house — and to purify you completely.
And remember what is recited within your houses of the proofs of God and of wisdom; God is subtle and aware.
(33:30-34)
Here the duty is to be modest and to be sincere in it.