Zakat institution has a special place both politically and financially in the history of Islam. Zakat, as worship, is located beyond as an instrument of public finance, and a distinct institution compared to tax. However, in the modern period, Muslim countries adopt zakat institution into the state bureaucracy as a public finance tool through centralizing the zakat institution and governing it via state apparatus. In this study, we critically explore the role of zakat as a public finance tool and examine how it is implemented in two Muslim nation-states, namely Malaysia and Indonesia. Although these nation-states might aim to fulfill political and financial goals through integration of zakat institution into the state bureaucracy, it is argued that zakat worship should be practiced as a strong bond in society’s dynamics, and its centralization by the sovereign authority leads to the diminishing of such bond and increase the dependence of citizens on the state.
BAYRAKTAR et al. (Mon,) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: