An independent Zakah accountability initiative

The $200 Billion Trust

Is your Zakah Funding the Ummah, or Funding a Black Box?

An uncomfortable truth is hiding in plain sight within the global Muslim community. Every single year, the Ummah generates an estimated $200,000,000,000 in Zakah. That’s too many zeros to count!

Donate NowSee how we protect Zakah

Help us preserve the third pillar of Islam by funding our independent charity audits & Zakah educational hub.

The scale of the trust

Yet, global poverty persists. Why?

Estimated annual global Zakah

$200,000,000,000

On the raw numbers, theoretically more than enough to eradicate extreme poverty across the Muslim world twice over.

It is enough to

  • Rebuild Gaza
  • Stabilise Sudan
  • Ensure no widow or orphan sleeps hungry
Source: “Analysis: A faith-based aid revolution in the Muslim world?” IRINnews, 1 June 2012.

Because the modern Islamic charity sector is fundamentally broken, and the third pillar of our religion is being compromised on two major fronts:

  1. Institutional lack of transparency
  2. Widespread financial illiteracy

We are terrified of making a mistake in our Wudu, yet we regularly calculate our Zakah on the back of a napkin in five minutes, click a generic “donate” button online, and simply hope Allah accepts it.

Ignorance about Zakah is not bliss. It is an active hazard to your Akhirah.

Before you click donate

The questions that keep conscientious donors awake.

None of these are hypothetical. Each one is a gap between a sincere intention and a verifiable outcome.

  • What if I calculated it wrong?

    Inventory valued at retail instead of wholesale, a property treated as rental rather than resale, a crypto holding priced at buy-in instead of the spot price on your due date — each is a quiet arithmetic error with a religious consequence.

  • How much of it actually leaves the building?

    Administrative fees and marketing costs are rarely printed next to the donate button. Most donors cannot name the percentage deducted from their Zakah before it moves.

  • Did it reach an eligible category?

    Zakah belongs to eight categories defined by Allah. General infrastructure, offices and public works are not among them, yet funds are routinely absorbed by them.

  • Can I trace where it ended up?

    Between the click and the recipient sit intermediaries, partners and reporting gaps. Very few donors can follow their own payment to the end of the chain.

  • If I got it wrong, is my obligation still owed?

    A miscalculated or misdirected payment does not quietly resolve itself. The concern that part of the third pillar remains outstanding is what keeps careful donors awake.

The problem

The Two Major Threats to Your Zakah

Threat 1

The Charity Black Box

You calculate your Zakah down to the exact decimal. You find an emotional video online of children in need. You click donate. But what happens to your money next?

The harsh reality is that billions of dollars are pumped into the charity sector annually, yet funds are routinely diluted. Many well-meaning Muslims are completely unaware that their Zakah is being siphoned off by exorbitant “administrative fees” or hidden marketing costs.

Sometimes, your obligatory 2.5% is diverted to build general community infrastructure—like administrative offices or public wells—instead of being handed directly to the eight eligible categories defined by Allah.

Allah ﷻ explicitly warns us about mishandling our sacred duties:

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَخُونُوا اللَّهَ وَالرَّسُولَ وَتَخُونُوا أَمَانَاتِكُمْ وَأَنتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ

O you who have believed, do not betray Allah and the Messenger or betray your trusts while you know.

Surah Al-Anfal, 8:27

If an organisation is using your Zakah to pay for corporate retreats, bloated executive salaries, or vague “awareness campaigns,” your third pillar is in severe jeopardy.

Donate Now

Help us preserve the third pillar of Islam by funding our independent charity audits and educational hubs.

Threat 2

The Modern Financial Gap

The days of counting physical gold dinars and livestock are over. We live in an era of unprecedented financial complexity.

Today, Muslims hold wealth in long-term dividend stocks, flipped real estate, and layered business inventories. The rules of Zakah remain divine, but applying classical Fiqh to modern asset structures requires rigorous, scholarly precision.

Are you applying the correct wholesale valuation to your retail inventory? Are you mistakenly paying Zakah on bad debts you will never recover? Are you holding unpurified digital assets? A single mathematical error in these areas does not just mean you made a mistake—it means you have either stolen from your own pocket or stolen from those in need.

Business inventory
Wholesale replacement cost, not retail markup.
Property held for resale
Current market valuation, not the historical purchase price.
Recoverable and bad debts
Two different treatments, routinely conflated.
Digital assets and portfolios
Valued on your Zakah due date, not your buy-in date.

The solution

ZakahAdvisor.org

We are not here to hand you a simple calculator. We are here to act as the absolute shield for your wealth.

Zakah Advisor is striving to be the world’s most comprehensive, uncompromising ecosystem designed to protect the donor, hold charities accountable, and guarantee the rights of the poor. We bridge orthodox Islamic scholarship with forensic financial auditing.

Orthodox Islamic scholarship
Classical Fiqh, applied without shortcuts.
Forensic financial auditing
Public filings, real numbers, no marketing.
Published transparency
Our methodology and sources, in the open.

What an audit produces

A rating you can actually read.

Every audit resolves into a published rating: a grade per core area, a score out of 100, and the registration and eligibility facts behind them.
Zakah Advisor — Charity Rating Report
Example Zakah Advisor charity rating report. It shows an overall rating of B, 84 out of 100, built from four core-area grades: registered charity, financial accountability, Zakat policy compliance, and governance and leadership. A side panel lists the organisation's country, focus, chief executive, charity registration and tax-receipt eligibility, and a scores table breaks the total down by core area.
Example of Zakah Advisor charity ratings. The four core areas shown correspond to our published audit methodology.Scroll the report horizontally to read it in full.

The methodology

Four pillars. One rating.

Every charity we audit is assessed against the same rigorous four-pillar methodology, and every grade traces back to it.

  1. Regulatory Compliance

    Legal status and tax returns.

  2. Financial Accountability

    Tracking exact revenue distribution to expose high overheads.

  3. Zakah Policy Compliance

    Evaluating against 30 strict Shariah metrics.

  4. Governance & Leadership

    Ensuring institutional transparency.

What we do

We do the heavy, exhausting work of financial verification so you do not have to.

  • Forensic Charity Auditing

    We strip away the emotional marketing. We dig into public tax returns, transparency reports, and governance structures. We verify end‑to‑end compliance with the 8 Quranic categories and expose administrative bloat.

  • Modern Financial Precision

    We translate complex jurisprudence into exact, accessible modern applications. Our educational tools and detailed guides teach you exactly how to calculate Zakah on dynamic portfolios and modern tax structures with absolute Shariah precision.

  • Total Transparency(Amanah)

    We publish our audit methodologies, scholarly sources, and rating metrics openly. We expect total transparency from the charities we evaluate, and we lead by example.

  • Zero Institutional Bias(Ikhlas)

    We are entirely independent. We accept absolutely no commissions, kickbacks, or institutional funding from the charities we audit. Our loyalty is strictly to Allah ﷻ, and then to you, the donor.

Independence

Why We Refuse Charity Money (And Why We Need YOU)

  • No commissions
  • No kickbacks
  • No institutional funding from the charities we audit

Here is another uncomfortable truth: the standard model for many “charity watchdogs” or donation portals is to take a percentage cut from the charities they feature.

We absolutely refuse to do this.

If we take money from the charities we are supposed to be auditing, our objectivity is compromised. We cannot fiercely critique an organisation’s Shariah compliance if that same organisation is paying our server bills. To remain truly independent, unbiased, and ruthless in our audits, we must be funded entirely by the community.

Zakah Advisor exists to protect YOUR Zakah. But who protects Zakah Advisor?

Donate Now

Help us preserve the third pillar of Islam by funding our independent charity audits and educational hubs.

The call

Join the FIRST 1,000 Zakah Guardians!

We are launching an urgent global campaign to find 1,000 visionaries willing to pledge just $10 a month in recurring Sadaqah.

This is not just about keeping a website online. This is about building a sustainable, global authority that forces the entire Islamic charity sector to elevate its standards through strict accountability.

By funding our operations, you are actively purifying the ecosystem of Islamic charity. You earn a share of the reward for every single dollar we successfully route away from mishandling and place directly into the hands of an orphan, a widow, or a stranded traveller in Gaza, Yemen, or beyond. Your $10 could save a $1,000 for those who need it!

Donate Now

Founding Guardians — the goal

1,000

Entry pledge
$10 / month
Given as
Recurring Sadaqah — never Zakah

Allah ﷻ commands us to give from the best of what we have earned:

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَنفِقُوا مِن طَيِّبَاتِ مَا كَسَبْتُمْ

O you who have believed, spend from the good things which you have earned…

Surah Al-Baqarah, 2:267

Support tiers

Choose Your Monthly Impact

Whether you are a student or a seasoned investor, your Sadaqah is the engine that drives this mission.

Recommended

$25

/ month

The Educator

You directly sponsor the research and publication of our deep-dive resources, such as our self-audit reports and modern Fiqh breakdowns, curing the financial illiteracy in our Ummah.

Your reward

  • Receive our 174 page publication “Is your Zakah Valid? 37 Mistakes Most Muslims Make (And how to fix them)”
  • The 38 questions checklist
Give $25 a month — The Educator
Cover of the Zakah Advisor donor checklist: “What Your Charity Isn’t Telling You — The Ultimate Zakah Self-Audit”, 38 essential questions to verify before you donate.

  • Entry pledge

    $10

    / month

    The Foundation

    Your contribution sustains our core digital infrastructure, keeping our dynamic Zakah calculators and educational hubs online and free for millions of Muslims globally.

    Your reward

    • Receive a PDF copy of our 38 questions checklist “What your charity isn’t telling you: The Ultimate Zakah Self Audit”
    Give $10 a month — The Foundation

  • $50

    / month

    The Vanguard

    You are the backbone of our operation. This tier directly funds our forensic auditing team and Shariah Advisory Board, allowing us to launch deep investigations into global charities and publish public ratings.

    Your reward

    • The Book
    • Nominate a Charity for our next audit
    Give $50 a month — The Vanguard

  • $100

    / month

    The Guardian

    At this level, you help us scale our auditing technology, allowing us to evaluate hundreds of additional charities per year and expand our reach into non-English speaking demographics.

    Your reward

    • The Book
    • Nominate a Charity
    • 1 hour with a Zakah Advisor Verified Scholar to answer your questions
    Give $100 a month — The Guardian

  • $200+

    / month

    The Visionary

    You secure our complete independence. Your major contribution ensures we never have to compromise our integrity or seek institutional funding. You are actively shaping the future of global Islamic finance.

    Your reward

    • All of the above
    • Join a special WhatsApp group to discuss the mission of Zakah Advisor with the Zakah Guardians
    Give $200+ a month — The Visionary

Included from $25 / month

“Is your Zakah Valid? 37 Mistakes Most Muslims Make (And how to fix them)”

A 174-page publication from Zakah Advisor.

Every tier

Given as recurring Sadaqah, never as Zakah.

Zakah has strict categories, and our operational costs do not fall into them. Your obligatory charity stays where it belongs.

Questions

Frequently asked questions

Why should I donate to Zakah Advisor instead of giving this Sadaqah directly to the poor?

Giving to the poor is a beautiful act of worship. However, supporting Zakah Advisor is an investment in systemic change. For every $100 you give to us, you are enabling us to protect and correctly route tens of thousands of dollars in Zakah that might otherwise be lost to administrative bloat or invalid causes. You are securing the third pillar for the entire Ummah.

Is my donation to Zakah Advisor considered Zakah?

No. Your donation to us is purely Sadaqah Jariyah (continuous charity). We do not accept Zakah funds for our operations. Zakah has strict categories, and our operational costs do not fall into them. This ensures your obligatory charity goes where it belongs, while your voluntary charity builds the system that protects it.

If you wish to give Zakah, find a verified charity on Madinah.com.

How do you audit these charities?

We use a rigorous 4-pillar methodology:

  1. Regulatory Compliance — Legal status and tax returns.
  2. Financial Accountability — Tracking exact revenue distribution to expose high overheads.
  3. Zakah Policy Compliance — Evaluating against 30 strict Shariah metrics.
  4. Governance & Leadership — Ensuring institutional transparency.
Are you affiliated with any specific charity?

Absolutely not. Our core value is Ikhlas (sincerity/independence). We operate completely autonomously, which gives us the freedom to praise charities that do phenomenal work and publicly call out practices that contradict the Shariah.

The final verdict

Your wealth is a test.

The Prophet ﷺ warned us that on the Day of Judgement, unpurified wealth will manifest as a terrifying punishment. We cannot afford to be careless with the third pillar of our religion.

Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said:

«مَنْ آتَاهُ اللَّهُ مَالاً فَلَمْ يُؤَدِّ زَكَاتَهُ مُثِّلَ لَهُ مَالُهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ شُجَاعًا أَقْرَعَ لَهُ زَبِيبَتَانِ يُطَوَّقُهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ، ثُمَّ يَأْخُذُ بِلِهْزِمَتَيْهِ ـ يَعْنِي بِشِدْقَيْهِ ـ ثُمَّ يَقُولُ أَنَا مَالُكَ أَنَا كَنْزُكَ»

Whoever is made wealthy by Allah and does not pay the Zakah of his wealth, then on the Day of Resurrection his wealth will be made like a bald-headed poisonous male snake with two black spots over the eyes. The snake will encircle his neck and bite his cheeks and say, ‘I am your wealth, I am your treasure.’

Narrated by Bukhari

The standard is set. The infrastructure is built. We have begun auditing the first wave of charities, but with thousands more operating in the dark, we urgently need your support to scale this work and audit every major organisation across the globe, and to develop a 100+ educational resources about Zakah (Articles, Podcasts, Videos, Interviews with scholars, etc).

Will you be one of the 1,000 visionaries who secures the integrity of Zakah for generations to come?

Donate Now

Help us preserve the third pillar of Islam by funding our independent charity audits and educational hubs.

Zakah Advisor

Independent charity audits and Zakah education — protecting the donor, holding charities accountable, and safeguarding the rights of those eligible to receive Zakah.

ZakahAdvisor.org

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Donations to Zakah Advisor are Sadaqah, not Zakah.

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