Zakat Expenditures: A Contemporary Jurisprudential Study

Praise be to Allah, we praise Him, seek His aid and ask for His guidance. We seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our own souls and the wickedness of our deeds. He whom Allah guides, none can misguide, and he whom He misguides, none can guide. I bear witness that Muhammad is the servant and Messenger of Allah, the guide to the straight path and the one who makes clear Allahs law by which the worldly and religious affairs are bestowed. O Allah, send prayers and peace upon him, his companions, those who follow them until the Day of Judgment. Now then, Zakat is a purely financial act of worship. The Quran has specified its legitimate uses and the categories entitled to it. God Almighty said: Zakat expenditures are only for the poor and the needy, and those employed to collect it, and those whose hearts are to be reconciled, and for freeing captives and those in debt, and for the cause of God, and for the wayfarer.(Surat At-Tawbah: 60) Although the Quran has specified the categories eligible for zakat, the economic, social and political developments that have occurred in Islamic societies in the modern era have prompted a re examination of the categories of zaka expenditures, taking into account the legal objectives of zakat and the legal objective of each category separately, while taking into account the main objective of zakat legislation, which is to achieve the general benefit of the poor and needy. There is no doubt that the emergence of many challenges in the current era, such as structural poverty, unemployment, deprivation of education, and poor health care, has prompted many specialists to reconsider the expenditures of zakat so that these contemporary challenges and problems can be accommodated, while taking into account the integration of authenticity and modernity in the approach.