The Role of Zakāh in poverty alleviation

Abstract

This paper examines the importance of the institution of Zakāh in Islam with the aim of highlighting its role as an effective tool for poverty alleviation. Zakāh has an immense value in the Islamic financial system. It is one of the five pillars of Islam and was enjoined as a compulsory duty on wealthy Muslims in the second year of hijrah. Therefore, it is perceived as a purification observance in three dimensions which include the moral, the economic and the social spheres. The institution or the office for the collection of Zakāh mobilizes from those on whom it is due their surplus wealth and distributes it to the recommended categories of individuals to provide the basic necessities of life in order to enhance their quality of life. This goes a long way to prevent waste in the economic system in which people might keep wealth for an extended period of time without any ethical commitment. Human welfare, therefore, is the end product of Zakāh and not the hoarding of wealth. The implication is that productive earnings enrich the whole community and, therefore, go a long way to alleviate the plight of those who do not have at any material moment of the Zakāh financial year