Sadaqah: Voluntary Charity Beyond Zakat in Islam

A look at sadaqah in Islamic teaching, drawn from the Quran and authentic hadith.

Beyond the obligatory pillar of zakat, Islamic teaching describes an entire second category of giving, sadaqah, voluntary charity with no fixed amount or threshold – and treats even the smallest gesture within this category as spiritually significant, extending the concept of charity into acts many people would not think to categorize as giving at all.

A Smile Counts

A hadith recorded by al-Tirmidhi has the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ teaching that even a smile toward another person is sadaqah – a claim scholars have used to illustrate how far Islamic teaching extended the concept of charity beyond financial giving, into ordinary social kindness available to every person regardless of wealth.

Every Joint of the Body Owes a Charity Each Day

A hadith recorded in Sahih Muslim describes the Prophet ﷺ teaching that every joint of a person’s body owes a sadaqah each day the sun rises – and then lists examples that require no wealth whatsoever: judging fairly between two people is a charity, helping a person onto their mount or lifting their belongings onto it is a charity, a good word is a charity, every step taken toward prayer is a charity, and removing a harmful object from the road is a charity. Scholars point to this hadith as the clearest single statement that sadaqah was never meant to be a category reserved for the financially comfortable.

The Best Charity: When You Are Still in Need of It Yourself

A hadith recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim describes a man asking the Prophet ﷺ which charity carries the greatest reward. He answered that it is giving while still healthy, holding onto hope of a long life and fearing poverty – not waiting until death is imminent to say a portion should go to charity, at which point, he noted, it effectively belongs to one’s heirs regardless. Scholars read this hadith as prioritizing charity given at genuine personal cost, while a person still has reason to want to keep what they are giving away, over charity given only once it can no longer be kept.

Right Hand Unaware of the Left

Among the seven categories given shade by Allah on the Day of Judgment, described in a hadith recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, is a person who gives charity so secretly that his left hand does not know what his right hand has spent – an image of complete concealment scholars cite as the standard against which sincere sadaqah, free of any desire for recognition, is measured.

Sadaqah Jariyah: Charity That Outlives the Giver

A hadith recorded in Sahih Muslim describes three things whose reward continues reaching a person even after death: ongoing charity, sadaqah jariyah, beneficial knowledge left behind, and a righteous child who prays for them. Scholars have applied the category of sadaqah jariyah to things such as digging a well, planting a tree, or building something of continued benefit to others – acts whose reward, unlike a single act of giving, is understood to keep accumulating for as long as people continue benefiting from them, long after the giver themselves has died.

Charity Given While Wanting to Keep It

A hadith recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim describes a man asking the Prophet ﷺ which act of charity carries the greatest reward, and receiving an answer that distinguished the quality of the giving from its quantity: charity given while a person genuinely desires wealth, fears poverty, and hopes to live long enough to enjoy it – not charity delayed until it costs the giver almost nothing to part with. Scholars point to this teaching as correcting the assumption that sadaqah becomes more meritorious the larger the sum, when the hadith literature repeatedly emphasizes instead the difficulty and sincerity behind the act. A separate account describes the Prophet ﷺ praising the charity of a poor woman who gave two dates when she had almost nothing else, over the far larger sums given publicly by wealthy men who felt little of the same sacrifice, and Surah al-Baqarah reinforces the same principle by warning that charity followed by reminders of the favor given, or by injury to the recipient’s dignity, is nullified entirely, comparing it to spending wealth only to be seen by people (2:264) – tying the entire category of sadaqah back to the same standard of sincerity, ikhlas, that governs every other act of worship in Islamic teaching.

Readers interested in this subject may also want to read about Hospitality to Guests in Islam. Readers wanting to verify the primary sources directly can consult Sunnah.com for the full Quranic text and hadith references.