Is the charity you’re giving your zakah to actually zakah-eligible?
Your zakah is only valid if it reaches someone the Shari'ah says is eligible. A charity doing good work isn't automatically one of them. So don't assume — check.
The eight the Shari’ah names
Zakah is owed to eight categories of people, set out in the Qur’an. A cause outside them — however good — isn’t where zakah belongs.
إِنَّمَا الصَّدَقَاتُ لِلْفُقَرَاءِ وَالْمَسَاكِينِ وَالْعَامِلِينَ عَلَيْهَا وَالْمُؤَلَّفَةِ قُلُوبُهُمْ وَفِي الرِّقَابِ وَالْغَارِمِينَ وَفِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَابْنِ السَّبِيلِ ۖ فَرِيضَةً مِّنَ اللَّهِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ حَكِيمٌ
Choose a category — on the wheel or in the verse above — to see who it means.
The poor
Those with next to nothing, unable to meet their basic needs.
The needy
Those in real hardship, whose means fall short of the essentials.
Those who administer it
Appointed to collect and distribute the zakah itself.
Reconciling hearts
Those drawn towards Islam, or whose goodwill is sought for the community.
Freeing the captive
Releasing those held in bondage or captivity.
The debt-burdened
Those weighed down by debts they genuinely cannot repay.
In the cause of Allah
Efforts and works undertaken in the cause of Allah.
The stranded traveller
The wayfarer cut off from their means far from home.
Helping Muslims isn’t the same as zakah-eligible
It’s an easy thing to assume — that a charity working across the Muslim world, feeding Muslim families, must be a safe home for your zakah. It isn’t, necessarily. Eligibility has nothing to do with where a charity works, or how worthy the cause. It turns on one thing: whether your money reaches one of the eight, in the way it must.
“They help Muslims in need, so my zakah is in the right place.”
Good work isn’t the same as zakah-eligible. What decides it is who ultimately receives the funds — and how.
And “zakah-eligible” is only a phrase. Any charity can place it on an appeal; nothing stands behind the words themselves. Most who use it mean well — far more often it’s a gap in understanding than bad faith.But some use it loosely, and a few less honestly than that. Your zakah can’t tell them apart: if it lands outside the eight, the obligation isn’t discharged — however sincere the charity, and whatever the reason.
That is why a check has to exist — an independent look at exactly who receives your zakah, and how, so “zakah-eligible” finally means what it says.
“Zakah Eligible”, verified by IFA
When a charity carries IFA’s Zakah Eligible seal, an independent authority has reviewed exactly how your zakah reaches those entitled to it — against IFA’s published Zakah Policy and the established rules of zakah. See the seal, give with confidence. Don’t see it? Ask them why not.
Check the register →
Three steps, thirty seconds
Search the register
Type the charity’s name into IFA’s public Certification Register.
Look for the mark
A certified charity appears with a live status and carries the “Zakah Eligible” seal.
Not there? Ask them
If a charity you support isn’t listed, send them a ready-made message asking them to get certified.
Giving your zakah?
Search the register before you give. If a charity you support isn’t on it, take a moment to ask them to get certified — donors are exactly who charities listen to.
Search the registerRun a charity?
Certification is how you prove to your donors that their zakah is in safe hands: reviewed against IFA’s Zakah Policy and listed on a register anyone can check.
Get certified