Issues And Challenges Of Zakat Institutions Achieving Maqasid Syariah In Malaysia

Abstract

Zakat institutions in Malaysia oversee the obligatory Islamic donations, which have improved the poor and needy‘s socio-economic conditions through innovative programs. These income-generating programs, which zakat recipients participate in, have enabled people to improve their livelihoods. These programs allow zakat recipients to become business owners with the ultimate goal of becoming zakat payers themselves. However, despite all assistance extended, the number of entrepreneurial failures among asnaf entrepreneurs is quite alarmingly high. Inadvertently, the fulfillment of Maqasid Syariah, the goals or objectives of Islamic law, is still lacking since identifying the rightful recipients from potential recipients is quite challenging. A successful entrepreneur requires motivation, so recipients should be motivated. If the best recipients are not identified, then there must be flaws in the system, so pinpointing those areas for improvement becomes critical. Not only that, once motivated recipients are found, which of these recipients will follow Maqasid Syariah to become zakat payers? In view of these issues, this paper proposes three main pre-selection areas for asnaf entrepreneurs, including a look at the three participants, namely, the zakat recipients, the zakat institutions, and the zakat payers. A thorough understanding of these participants, for future successful zakat process implementation, is crucial. However, the main areas discussed are based on a participant‘s pre-selection which (1) measures their entrepreneurial intent, or motivation, by using an entrepreneurship index to identify true potential asnaf entrepreneurs, (2) a proposal to appoint village headmen who collaborate with local imams to verify potential recipients for better zakat management, and (3) an allocation of capital for targeted Millennial Asnaf who would use the money to initiate their entrepreneurial ventures on a small scale so they can increase the success of the Islamic zakat system.