Role of Zakah and Waqf in Poverty Alleviation
Role of Zakah and Waqf in Poverty Alleviation
Role of Zakah and Waqf in Poverty Alleviation
POVERTY ALLEVIATION
Functional distribution
Recommended transfer
of income
Prevention of
Equal opportunity malpractice State responsibility
• Zakah and Waqf are the two most important mechanisms of Islam’s
corrective measures that provide a social safety net (SSN) to Muslim
ummah through wealth redistribution in line with its social and
economic welfare system to prepare for prosperity both in this world
and the hereafter.
• While Zakah represents an instrument of Islamic social finance that
focuses on compulsory transfer, Waqf represents an instrument of
recommended transfer.
• Waqf is classified into three types often based on the intention of its
founders regarding its beneficiaries.
2
Family
1 3
Philanthropic Mixed
Allah and having a deep sense poor and needy captives on family, or use sanctification
of duty towards Allah • Share of the • Some scholars to settle • Wealth
• Share of “Allah’s cause” wayfarer accept ransom disputing preservation,
• Attracting the heart of those payment for parties, preserve growth and
with inclination toward Islam abductees life, etc.) enhancement
Ease and felicitation (taysīr) Removal of difficulty (raf’ul haraj)
Hājiyyāt
• Minimum zakatable amount (nisāb) and zakah due • Providing needs of the Ummah for the realisation of
• Neither the best nor the worst of wealth social cohesion and self-sufficiency
• Realisation of mutual cooperation (at-Takāful al-Ijtimā’iy)
Spirits of Zakah
and Waqf
Tawāzun Ri’āyah
(balance) (welfare)
Manfa’ah
(benefit)