Muslim American Zakat Report 2022

Abstract

Zakat and sadaqa are key Islamic philanthropic traditions. Zakat, the third of five pillars of Islam, is an obligatory act of giving. Sadaqa is voluntary giving beyond the minimum threshold of zakat. Sadaqa can take the form of money, action or abstention; the intention is what defines the act as charitable. This report details the findings on zakat from a self-administered web survey conducted by SSRS for the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. The larger study, of which these findings are a part, surveys the opinions of Muslims and the general population regarding faith customs, donation practices and attitudes, volunteer work, remittances, tolerance, and diversity. SSRS conducted its survey from January 25 through February 15, 2022 with 2,010 adult respondents (age 18 and over), including 1,006 Muslim and 1,004 general population respondents. SSRS reached eligible respondents via a nonprobability web panel sample. We restricted questions about zakat to the Muslim sample.