Does One Need to Spend More Than Zaka'h in Allah's Way? Can you please clarify what is meant when the Qu'ran enjoins us to establish regular charity. Is this referring to Zakat? If so, since I only pay Zakat once a year then it does not seem very regular to me. Reply The obligatory spending prescribed by Islam for a Muslim, under normal circumstances is only the zakah. No spending besides the zakah has been made obligatory on a Muslim. It should also be remembered that status of zakah in an Islamic state is not that of charity. Zakah is basically the only tax that an Islamic state can impose on its Muslim citizens. According to the Qur'an, Zakah would be used by an Islamic state on for all its expenses besides that on the religious programs and humanitarian needs. Thus, on the one hand Islam puts a restriction on the Islamic state as far as imposition of any taxes besides zakah, and on the other it promotes the spirit of charity among Muslims. The directive that you have alluded to has normally been interpretted as refering to spending )in charity) besides which is over and above the obligatory amount computed as zakah. According to the Qur'an, one of the basic quality that Allah holds dear in a believer is to be charitable not only under normal circustances, but especially when he himself is in need for money and still gives preference to the needs of others (Al-Baqarah 2: 177). Moreover, one of the qualities of those who, with Allah's mercy, shall qualify for the highest grades of jannah is that they have a fixed budget for charity in their incomes (Al-Zariya't 51: 19 and Al-Ma`a'rij 70: 25). At both these occasions the referred spending is over and above that which computed as the due for the obligatory zakah. I hope this helps. In case any aspect of my answer remains unclear, please feel free in writing back to me. Regards The Learner