Discover the meaning of the term As-sadaqa (صدقة) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 4 min readIt is the gift by which one seeks reward from Allah, the Most High.
It is the gift by which one seeks reward from Allah, the Most High. In the lands of the West (al-Maghrib) one says: "give sadaqa to the poor", that is: give them charity.
The transfer of ownership, without compensation, seeking the Face of Allah, the Most High. Giving to the poor is sadaqa even if expressed by the word "gift" (hiba), and giving to the rich is a gift (hiba) even if expressed by the word "sadaqa", according to the transmission of al-Jami' as-Saghir, which made each of the two terms a metaphor for the other: a gift given to the poor is called sadaqa, and sadaqa given to the rich is called a gift, because it may involve goodwill, affection and compensation, and is therefore not purely sadaqa. A distinction was drawn between the gift and the sadaqa by a ruling, namely the permissibility of generalization in sadaqa and its impermissibility in the gift: one may thus give ten dirhams as sadaqa to two persons, but not give it to both of them as a gift. What encompasses both is the transfer of ownership.
It is used in two senses. The first: whatever wealth you give intending the Face of Allah, the Most High; this includes what is obligatory, namely zakat, as well as what is voluntary. The second: it is taken in the sense of zakat, that is, specifically the obligatory due, as in the hadith: "There is no sadaqa on what is less than five awsug of food."
Sadaqa: what one gives of one's wealth seeking the Face of Allah. Among it is the ongoing charity (sadaqa jariya), whose benefit endures and whose reward does not cease after death, such as the waqf (endowment) and beneficial knowledge.
When to say it? When speaking of giving and charity
What is synonymous with it.
The act through which the truthfulness of faith in the unseen becomes apparent, given that provision (rizq) belongs to the unseen; mentioned by al-Hurali. Ibn al-Kamal said (at-Ta'rifat, p. 138): "The gift by which one seeks reward from Allah." And ar-Raghib said (al-Mufradat, p. 278): "What a person gives out of his wealth as a means of drawing near, such as zakat; but sadaqa, in origin, refers to the voluntary, while zakat refers to the obligatory." What a person forgoes of his right in magnanimity is called sadaqa, as in: "Whoever gives it as sadaqa, it will be an expiation for him" (al-Ma'ida 45), and: "It is better for you that you give as sadaqa" (al-Baqara 280): what the insolvent debtor is excused from paying is treated as sadaqa; likewise: "a compensation handed to his heirs, unless they give it as sadaqa" (an-Nisa 92): its remission is called sadaqa. And the saying in the hadith: "What you eat with forbearance is sadaqa" (in another version: "You ate of it with forbearance: for you is a sadaqa thereby, and for that a reward". Reported by ad-Darimi in his Sunan, chapter on sales, 65, and by Ahmad in his Musnad 3/313 and 327).
With a moving vowel (muharraka): the gift by which one seeks reward from Allah, the Most High; the gift (hiba) is that by which one seeks goodwill, affection and honour for its recipient.