Technically, it is worshipping Allah, Most High, by giving out a legally obligatory portion of specified wealth to a designated category or cause.
Its ruling is that it is obligatory.
Its place in the religion is that it is one of the pillars of Islam, and the most important of Islam’s pillars after prayer. Whoever denies that it is obligatory, while living among Muslims, is a disbeliever, because he has declared Allah, His Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, and the consensus of the Muslims to be false—whether he pays it or not. As for one who acknowledges that it is obligatory but is negligent in paying it and withholds it out of miserliness, the sounder of the two scholarly opinions is that he is a flagrant sinner, not a disbeliever.
Zakah is not due on every type of wealth; rather, it is due on wealth that is productive in actuality or by legal assessment.
Wealth that is productive in actuality includes livestock, crops, fruits, and trade goods.
Wealth deemed productive includes gold and silver when they are not used for trade. Even if they remain dormant, they are legally regarded as productive, because their owner may trade with them whenever he wishes.
The types of wealth subject to zakah are five:
- Gold.
- Silver.
- Trade goods.
- Livestock.
- What is produced from the land.