ZAKAT- IGNORED TOOL OF POVERTY ERADICATION IN TANZANIA.

INTRODUCTION.

Zakah or Zakat ul Maal (Alms) can be defined as compulsory contribution payable at once in a year from the wealth which has reached prescribed level (Nisaab). This is a command of Allah which must be fulfilled by every Muslim, male and female. Allah says in the Holy Qur’an “And they have been commanded no more than this: to worship Allah, offering Him sincere devotion, being true in faith. To establish regular prayer, and to give zakat. And that is the religion right and straight." (Qur'an98:5) Abu Al Hasan Sadeq says, “Zakah is not only lbadah, its role is significant in the development of a healthy and peaceful social environment, which is full of mutual cooperation and sympathy.” Every Muslim who owns wealth, more than a certain amount to meet his or her needs, must pay a fixed rate of Zakat to eight different categories mentioned in the Qur’an (9:60).

Institution of Zakah plays crucial role in alleviating poverty in the society if it is administered properly and professionally as several empirical evidence has shown. It is impact is directly felt and reach to the concerned people which in turns help the state in equitable distribution of wealth. In Dr. Mohammed N. Ghazali words, “The economic analysis of zakah is no doubt as 14/20th Century development and discovery of its economic significance may be considered no less than a scientific miracle.”

The Importance of Zakat and its objective:

Zakat is a third pillar of Islam. There is a consensus of Islamic scholars that the highest priority in Zakat disbursement is for the eradication of poverty. God has obligated Zakat and mentioned it in 82 verses in the holy Qur’an which signifies its importance. He obliged all free Muslims either male or female who have the nisab (own specified amount of money-prescribed limit) for one year to pay zakat. Zakat has been met with a lot of challenge in the early years of Islam, specifically after the Prophet Muhammad's death (PBUH), where some people refused to pay it. The prophet's companions have fought such phenomena during the rule of Abu Bakr since they believed that those who refused to pay Zakat were becoming non-believers. This historical account again stresses the importance and significance of Zakat. Besides, we can analyse the role of Zakat at individual, society and economic level.

The role of Zakat in the Development of an Individual:

Zakat plays a vital and deep role in self improvement and the development of the manners and attitudes. Cutting out a part of the Muslim's money to please God makes the person more submissive to Allah and his contribution as zakat is considered a financial way of worship. Since Allah has given so much to the segment of people consequently these people should show their thankfulness to Allah through giving out to the less fortunate, a share in their money (in the wealthy of the rich there is other people’s rights). At the same time, giving away a part of one's money which is something dear to a person requires patience. As a result of giving, zakat giver achieves two parts of believing. The same applies for the poor who is patient with his poverty and at the same time is thankful to Allah when he receives zakat money.

Moreover, zakat is a way of purifying one's soul from being a money lover or a miser and makes giving for the sake of Allah a habit made easier. On the other side, feeling of hatred and despise disappears when less fortunate feel the compassion and the assistance of the rest of the society and are replaced by feelings of love, satisfaction and the belief in Allah.

Finally, the Prophet Mohammad s.a.w said, if your leaders are evil mongers among you, and your fortunate ones are the miser among you then to be in the grave is better than to be on earth and the vice versa is true.


The role of Zakat in Social Development:

Zakat plays very important role in the achievement of social security and cooperation as it is an aid in the time of crisis including sickness, accidents, debt repayment and so forth. Zakat ensures cooperation between members of the same community because anyone is subject to emergency needs and those who are in need will not be left alone during their hardships. Zakat represents the first social security institution in the past Muslim communities as the state was responsible for the collection of zakat money and redistributing it to cover needs of the poor and create jobs for the unemployed. Jobs created were instrumental and enable unemployed become valuable productive people in their society. The institution of Zakah creates the spirit of sharing and helping others, contrary to the inherent selfish behavior, and thus creates a healthy and congenial social environment.

The role of Zakat in Economic Development:

Zakat plays a vital role in economic development. This is mainly due to three interlinked factors: it discourages hoarding of money and encourages investment and consumption. One of the most important goals of zakat is to stop the hoarding of money and encourage investing it to have a return on the owner and on the community as a whole. This principle is even more important when we consider liquid money which should not be kept without a use. This idea goes in line with the understandings of the modern economy, which points out that hoarding money without use is a serious impediment to growth of the economy. This is because resources hoarded don’t go into the wheel of the economy and therefore diminish the amount of local wealth. Moreover, this results in a rate of growth much lesser than the one that can be achieved if all resources were fully utilized. In addition, understanding of zakat encourages investment of the savings because if the original zakat money isn’t invested it will demolish throughout the year by zakat payment. Therefore, it is important that money is invested to be able to pay zakat from the profits and not from the original capital.

Zakat as a Means of Social Security:

The Zakah-based social security system does not imply "letting the common people lead a life of dependence", but it is a compulsory social security system to be enforced for the upliftment of the disadvantaged people so that they will not need such a help eventually.

Zakat is described by many Islamic thinkers as the 'Institution of social security'. In the old Islamic era, Zakat has succeeded as an institution through the 'House of Money (Baytul Maal)' in achieving its goals of developing a rich and prosperous society. According to Dr. Nasseh Elwan, "zakat when applied in the previous Islamic era succeeded in defeating poverty, and removing envious feelings from the poor towards the rich … It trained Muslims to give and donate and facilitated working opportunities to those who didn't find jobs." This means that Zakat was not only used to provide charitable assistance to the poor, but it was also a practical means to create job opportunities like providing a man with a capital to start a business.

Both Caliphs Omar Ibn el Khattab and Omar Ibn Abdel Aziz played perfect examples of how good rulers are able to achieve social justice and prosperity to their society. One of the says of Omar Ibn el Khattab reveals his conscience and justice in collecting and distributing Zakat money was in the famine year, when he said, "I swear to God, whom there is no God but Him, I will give every person who has a right in this money [money in the house of money], and nobody has a right more than the other, and my right is not more than the right of anyone of you." As for the era of the Caliph Omar Ibn Abdel Aziz, poverty was totally eradicated from the Islamic community and prosperity reached every member, either Muslim or non-Muslim.

Islam is also greatly concerned about the necessity of keeping an ethical, just, and equal relation between the ruler and the ruled. This principle is clearly manifested in the prophet's say, "Each ruler comes tied on the day of resurrection, and nothing would free him except his justice."

Zakat Funds in Tanzania.

Muslims in Tanzania constitute msignificant portion of the country's 48 million people, whereby more than a half engages in farming, fishing, livestock keeping as well as running business as their main economic activity. Other are employed and contribute significant amount of their salary to social security/pension funds available in the country as required by law. Employees’ retirement funds and the income or produce generated from these sectors are subject to payment of Zakat if their wealth or possession has reached nisab level.

Due to absence of the Zakat laws, Zakat has been given on a voluntary, covertly and on decentralized basis which effects effective distribution of Zakat funds. Russell observes that “voluntary giving to local groups or individuals favors certain categories of beneficiaries, for example, those with the relationship to the giver and that this pattern of giving tends not to provide for sufficient redistribution of wealth to alleviate systematic poverty.” In other words, real beneficiaries don’t benefit from this sacred tool of poverty reduction in the society and its objectives are far to be realized. For this reason, some nations established government supported entities to receive and distribute voluntary Zakat contributions. This has proven to be efficient as it ensures zakat is administered consistent with its religious goals with adequate transparency and accountability to satisfy zakat payers.

Currently, there are sixteen Muslim countries which have institutionalized Zakat. However, Tanzania being a secular state hasn’t institutionalized Zakat and chose to ignore it like other twenty four predominant Muslim countries. Despite of not having a law that enforces Zakat payments in Tanzania and other countries, Muslims have been paying Zakat to those who deserve it. For instance, Turkey which doesn’t have the law, 69% of Turks gave Zakat in 2004. Wealthy Muslims in Tanzania pays and distribute Zakat either by themselves or through Zakat Funds established by TAMPRO (it is called Baitul Maal under the leadership of Sheikh Basalleh.) and the other one under DYCCC based in Dar es Salaam. Perhaps, there are other Zakat funds in predominantly Muslim regions of Tanzania. However, the impact of these funds on poverty eradication has not been adequately researched and documented despite known fact that there has been a number of beneficiaries to date.

Challenges Faced by Zakat Collectors.

Challenges faced by zakat collectors either as an agency, Islamic bank or charitable foundations are numerous. The first challenge is to bridge information gap caused by lack of knowledge and information about sharia provision on zakat matters affects its successful administration. To address this issue, a lot of media publicity, public lectures and articles in the news papers will have to be delivered and written respectively. Second, storage and transportation for collection of zakat in kind as well as catering for the livestock daily needs like food, shelter, medication and other kind of care. Third, outreach to deserving beneficiary by developing a distributive mechanism to reach the poor in descending order of poverty where by the worst sufferers of poverty are taken care first among those who deserve it.


What need to be done?

First, raise awareness and show the life changes to those who benefitted. Funds managers needs not to shy away from promoting Zakat payments through them since this is a preferred way to manage Zakat and have database of beneficiaries. In this way, research can be carried to assess the impact of Zakat if there is a place where records of beneficiaries can be found and traced to assess their economic development from time to time. Furthermore, success story of Zakah needs to be told especially to those who contribute to the fund despite Zakat being an obligation it is always a defeating tools against whispers of devils to withhold buur also a motivating story to see changes that can be brought by their funds. Muslim can organise ZAKAT DAY in a year to sensitize people to pay Zakat and to make people know where they can get Zakat. Much can also be learn if we laise with prominent Zakat Funds around the world such as Lebanon Zakat Fund, Kuwait Zakat House, Zakat Fund in Qatar, Zakat Fund Malawi, Zakat Fund South Africa among others not just by physical visit of offices but what they do starting from their website information/content to other necessary levels.

Second, strengthen credibility of administrators. One on the ignored dimension of Zakat management in Tanzania, is lack of credibility and professionalism of administrators. There is a need to ensure person serving in these funds are honest, pious, knowledgeable, with reputable social standing and hard working. This shall bar and extinguish unreasonable fears that the funds will be mismanaged. This fear has in many aspects came into being based on historical account of affairs of lost properties and money mobilised and ended in few pockets. With right persons and transparent governance on the wheel, trust can be won and goals attained.

Finally, rather than the government to rely from banks, MFI and saccos to eradicate poverty, the government must be engaged to allow and make Zakat payment a Tax deductable in our Income Tax Act in order private enterprises to have an incentive to fulfill their religious and social duty provided there is clean records that funds are really given for Zakat purposes. This is not a new thing as we know religious institution are exempted from Taxes and so it should be for person fulfilling religious duty with evidence to prove as such in order to curb tax evasion.