Institutionalising Zakat

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has earned so much credibility that American billionaires, including Warren Buffet, do not hesitate to choose it as a launching pad for distribution of their charity money for poverty alleviation. While charity is voluntary, zakat is compulsory for all capable Muslims. That is why, organisations mobilising zakat fund and its distribution should be run by personalities having the highest degree of honesty and integrity. This alone can help such organisations collect zakat money and serve the cause of Islam by using it to alleviate poverty.  
A few enterprising entrepreneurs, including Neaz Rahim and Abul Kasem Khan, have come up with their idea of institutionalising zakat distribution. The other day, the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) headed by Khan and the Centre for Zakat Management (CZM) led by Rahim held a seminar to highlight the need for such institutionalisation of zakat money. This is because zakat is a religious and faith-based community tool by which poverty can be alleviated.
Noted economist Mirza M Azizul Islam, while taking part in the DCCI seminar, said institutions like CZM can come forward for institutional management of zakat as well as for overall monitoring. Yet another economist Hossain Zillur Rahman said people generally give Zakat individually and most of the time they give sarees or lungees (clothes) to the poor people. This system can barely bring any change, he said, adding, "We need to strengthen institutional faith-based zakat management tool and cluster-based approach for poverty reduction."
In fact, the holy month of Ramadan is now here for distribution of zakat, recognised by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) as the third of five pillars of Islam. Its payment is an obligation on every Muslim based on clear-cut criteria. Zakat has been variously described by scholars as a tool for redistribution of income, a tool for public finance, and of course, as a mechanism for development and poverty alleviation. The first and foremost category of potential beneficiaries of zakat money is the poor and the destitute.
But sadly, zakat is misinterpreted in Bangladesh widely. Its manifestations are writ large on shops marked with 'Saree and lungee for zakat for sale' banners. Such banners imply that the clothes, being of inferior quality, are low-cost. But then zakat loses its significance when wealthy Muslims crowd these shops to buy cheap clothes that will last three or four months. In fact, such clothes neither alleviate poverty of fellow Muslims nor do these make them self-reliant.   
 Indeed, donating cheap clothes to the poor is a defamation of zakat. It is not charity. Zakat is actually the wealth of the poor that has been tagged with the assets of the wealthy. So giving zakat is actually ensuring a poor man's right. It should be given in such a way that can free a person from the trap of poverty.
The system of zakat management evolves from only trust. It is not the trust of government; rather it is the trust of people. Those who will work for the proper distribution of zakat should be salaried from the zakat fund itself so that the process can be made corruption-free.
Every Muslim wants to see how his zakat money is spent. So it has to be decentralised. Not only in the national level, we need to go to the district, divisional, upazila and right to the ward level. The zakat-payers want to see where and how their money is being spent.  
It is time for all organisations involved in zakat distribution to focus on human resource development. They should build manpower that is knowledgeable and skilled in this sector. Before initiating large projects with zakat fund one should focus on smaller projects. If we can take some families from below the poverty level and develop their economic condition to such an extent that they become self sufficient for their livelihood, then they can start future projects with them. These developed families will be the workforce of further programmes.
Most people give zakat to their poorer relatives or neighbours or to the familiar ones. But the problem with this is that it does not bring any sustainable change and zakat becomes merged with charity. In our culture, a person likes to offer financial help to his known individuals. When a person will give zakat to an institution like CZM which will spend the money for a project in Chittagong or elsewhere, the person will not be able to see how the money is being spent. This kind of institutionalisation may work as a negative influence. Organisations dealing with zakat need to address this issue.
Now the challenge is how to make organisations handling zakat big and reliable ones. The ability of such bodies should be so immense that they could collect and distribute zakat fund worth billions of taka. But to gain such capability the organisations have to be registered under the legal provisions of the Bangladesh government so that nobody can raise questions against it. In the trustee boards of the organisations trustworthy people have to be placed so that people get inspired by seeing their names and rely on the organisation's transparency.
The capacity of organisations has to be enhanced greatly. The projects should be bannered as zakat-funded so that people can be informed about the positive impacts of zakat. Many rich people of our country are eager to pay zakat and if they find trustworthy organisations like CZM, they will pour their money into it. But the task that has to be done is to gain people's trust as reliable and capable organisations.
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