Importance Of Zakat

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Based on Islamic history, there are evidence that zakat is effective in eradicating poverty. A few scholars claimed that during the period of Umar Ibn Al-Khattab and Umar Ibn Abdul Aziz poverty is completely eliminated through payment of zakat.
Al-Qardawi (1987) stipulated that Umar AL-Khattab’s aim was to change the life style of the poor that is from becoming the recipient of zakat to the giver of zakat. It is proven during the reign of Caliph Umar Abd Aziz on how zakat fund could transform the lives of poor and needy whereby there was a surplus in the zakat fund as there were no eligible recipients to receive the fund. According to Mustofa al-Khin et.al 2005, Umar’s action is in accordance to the beauty of zakat distribution which is to cater for the basic needs of the poor and needy and also to remove them from poverty and destitution.
Poverty is one of critical issues that faced by many countries in this world nowadays. This problem incurred due to the inequality in the society which can be reduced by implementation of zakat. It has been supported by the study done by Kusuma and Sukmana (2010) that mentioned about the importance of zakat in the socio-economic framework of Islam and how it can be used to reduce the inequality in the society.
Patmawati (2008) argues that zakat distribution has the ability to develop the economic well-being of Muslim society based on the evidences by a number of empirical studies of zakat. A more specific study on the impact of zakat on distribution of income for the two categories of the asnafs, the poor and the needy people in Malaysia was carried out by Patmawati (2006) whereby she finds that zakat has reduced the income inequality and poverty.
According to Hairunnizam and Radiah (2010), i...

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... is part of their social obligation towards the Muslim ummah and Islam as payment of zakat is one of the five pillars of Islam. Secondly, they believe that in part of their wealth, there are rights for poor and needy as they believe that payment of zakat could purify and sanctify their wealth and get blessing from Allah s.w.t.
Haji Abang Mohd Shibli (2005) has suggested that the government should play a responsible role in managing the Baitulmal, improving the welfare the poor in the society. However, the weakness in the system is still prevalent because zakat distribution primary objective has not been realized yet, which is the returning the rights of the have not to ensure economic equality and justice. Therefore, Azizan (2005) suggested that the poor must be motivated and encouraged to be independent and self-sustained by fully utilizing the zakat disbursement.

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