Zakat, as a type of ibadah, is concerned with money, wealth or property. By definition, it is an amount of money that a capable Muslim is required to pay out to the needy (those who deserve receiving it) in order to purify his/ her wealth (originally, zakat is an Arabic word that implies purification of one’s self and one’s wealth or mal, and then it came to denote mandatory alms giving or “giving to charity”). Zakat is typically calculated at a 2.5% (or 2.5775% for a solar calendar year) on a Muslim’s accumulated wealth (what has been left, every lunar year, above the minimum amount liable to the payment of zakat, in cash, bank account, gold or silver, tradable assets, after accounting for all bills, debts, and rights of others).

On the other hand, waqf (وقف), as a subject-matter, is an income-generating and/ or manfaah-producing property whose yield or benefits (ghallat al-waqf) are assigned by the owner in perpetuity to a named group of individuals or the public. The owner, establishing waqf, donates it and surrenders ownership and control over the waqf corpus/ assets.

Both zakat and waqf involve giving: a unilateral transfer of wealth to others (without the right to request or expect any countervalue or compensation in return). Broadly speaking, the very nature of each type of giving makes payment of zakat (zakah) on waqf inconceivable, practically and shari’ah-wise. Payment of zakah on waqf is not a shari’ah requirement due to the specificity of each: zakah calls for immediate payment of its amount (a percentage on zakatable assets), while waqf (i.e., public waqf) involves endowing to others (the public) any form of wealth for perpetuity, irrespective of amount or size.

However, for specific cases like private waqf (waqf khas)/ waqf zhurri/ family waqf, the payment of zakat depends on the conditions for liability having been met. The beneficiaries, who have family connections with the waqif (the party establishing waqf) must apply the calculations of zakat to the waqf yield in much the same way such calculations are conducted under normal circumstances of liability to zakah.