The practice of sadaqa in Muslim America

This chapter analyzes the practice of voluntary or extemporaneous charity, called sadaqa. Unlike zakat, sadaqa can be given to any cause and is not mandatory. For this reason, sadaqa can be considered a mode of informal religious philanthropy. In this chapter, we consider three forms of US-based sadaqa practice: the first form is the sadaqa of enslaved African Muslims brought to the Americas who continued to engage in charitable behavior; the second is the mosque as a site of civic behavior and giving; the third form of sadaqa is general Muslim-American practices of giving and volunteering based on original survey data.