Chapter in Book

COVID-19 pandemic has impacted global human lives, killing millions and attacking the real economy to its core. United Nations has called for global solidarity to overcome this unprecedented disaster. Having said that, zakat has been utilized to respond to this ongoing suffering in Muslim countries. This chapter explore zakat utilization for COVID-19 under the shariah perspective and discuss the role of zakat to respond to the pandemic in Muslim countries. A qualitative methodology including conceptual and content analysis is applied to conduct this study. The findings show that most sharia scholars agreed to utilize zakat for the COVID-19 pandemic and endorse advance zakat payment. Moreover, zakat has been disbursed mainly to fulfil basic needs, support emergency health services, sustain education activities, recover economic impact and maintain dakwah programme. The global zakat institutions have also started up the international initiative to respond to this pandemic. This study contributes to the academia on showing how zakat is a conceivable and reliable instrument to give immediate response to this pandemic in Muslim countries. The best practices found in this study are worthy for zakat institutions to continue their programme under this pandemic and be resilient for the next global scale of disasters.

Zakat is compulsory alms given by eligible Muslims around the world every year to legal beneficiaries derived from the Holy Book of Muslims: Quran. These legal beneficiaries include the poor and needy. The general rule followed in the distribution of zakat among Muslims is that zakat money collected is distributed within the legal recipients found in the geographical area in which it is collected or within the same country. It is hard to find instances where zakat money collected is transported to another country to transform the lives of poor and needy in those communities who require such assistance to improve their lives. The main reason for this is due to the Shariah opinions given by the scholars on the permissibility of transporting zakat money from one country to another. Despite this challenge, Majlis Agama Islam and Adat Istiadat Melayu Perlis (MAIPS), which is the state religious authority of one of the states of Malaysia gave permission to transport zakat from Malaysia to Kenya to support a humanitarian project managed by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). This is a landmark case as MAIPS's decision to transport zakat from Malaysia to Kenya was used to help a drought assistance program in the county of Kitui, located in southern central Kenya that was identified as the worst-affected part of the country.