Sharia Analysis of Individual and Collective investment of Zakat Funds

Abstract

Islam has a comprehensive system to minimize the poverty in the society. Zakat is one of the most important pillars of Islamic economic system, in one hand it purify the wealth of the affluent of the society while on the other hand it gives an opportunity to the underprivileged  to fulfil his desires. In modern day society, it is suggested that instead of payment of individual zakat, the zakat shall be collected by the government and it should be invested by the government in profitable sharia complaint ventures and only profit of the venture will distributed among the needy people or it should be made permanent source of income for the needy people by establishing a venture or industry from zakat pool. In this paper, zakat, the philosophy of zakat and its conditions among jurist is discussed in detail and the issue of investment of zakat is also examined by collecting views of classical as well as modern jurist. Study shows that zakat may not be allowed to be invested for long term. However sharia compliant saving of surplus amount is acceptable.