The Ethics of Islamic Philanthropy

This article reconstructs the ethical architecture of Islamic philanthropy through qualitative thematic content analysis of Qur’anic and Prophetic sources. While existing scholarship documents important elements of Islamic giving, the ethical foundations of zakat, sadaqa, infaq, and waqf remain conceptually fragmented. Inductive analysis identifies four interrelated ethical dimensions – trusteeship (amanah), self-purification (tazkiyah), circularity (dawr), and reciprocity (mukāfa’ah) – that together form a coherent moral framework grounded in spiritual accountability and distributive justice, constituting a normatively structured moral economy of philanthropic obligation. The study shows that Islamic philanthropy conceptualizes giving not as discretionary benevolence but as a structured domain of obligation and social responsibility. By systematically reconstructing this ethical architecture, the article contributes to nonprofit and voluntary sector scholarship by clarifying how moral frameworks shape philanthropic governance, accountability, and institutional diversity. The findings advance debates on ethical pluralism and provide a conceptual foundation for comparative research on faith-based philanthropy.