Abstract
Over the past fifty years, a most definite reconceptualisation of zakat has taken place in Indonesia, whereby zakat has changed from a largely unmarked and little elaborated upon ritual of annual worship to a fundamental instrument of socio-economic justice. The chapter concentrates on explicating the traditional understanding of zakat, followed by the analysis of Indonesian jurisprudential discourses that precipitated this reconfiguration. The reading of such discourses is critical in the sense that attention is brought to bear on the fact that the repositioning of zakat both as an obligation equivalent to tax and a gift comparable to philanthropy by leading Muslim intellectuals and faith-based organisations alike downplays other, alternative understandings of it as right. As well as highlighting the temporal dimensions of zakat, the chapter also stresses zakat as a device for making time pass. As the third pillar of the faith, zakat is conducted once a year and involves the transfer of value that belongs to others. Its conduct makes time pass by means of differentiating wealth into distinct shares and dividing the present into two unequal halves: an immediate past tainted by sins, moral failings and misdemeanours is made to give way to a bright future.
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Notes
- 1.
As Nietzsche puts it, ‘there is only a seeing from a perspective, only a “knowing” from a perspective’ (2003: 86).
- 2.
These are mentioned in Surat At-Taubah, verse 60. For contemporary understandings of the categories concerned see Fauzia (2013: 234), commonly they are the destitute, the poor, the zakat collectors, new converts, slaves, debtors, those advancing God’s cause and the wayfarers.
- 3.
N. Madjid explicitly critiqued the idea of an Islamic state which he found to correspond to the sacralisation of a human institution and advocated for the ‘compatibility’ of Islamic and democratic values, see Madjid (2001).
- 4.
On maslaha as a principle of Islamic jurisprudence and its relevance for the reformist movement, see Hallaq (2001).
- 5.
See fatwa Number 3, Year 2003, on Zakat Penghasilan in Himpunan 2003: 87. The edict contains no guidance as to whether zakat profesi follows upon completion of haul, the customary one-year period that applies to commercial activities, and/or whether it is acceptable for it to proceed on the basis of automatically deducted monthly payments, as is commonly practiced by many institutions and professionals in Indonesia.
- 6.
Zakat’s validity as an act of worship depends on the requisite intention, with the person liable having to name the transfer as such. Some jurists prefer the intention to be declared silently, rather than openly, so as to spare the recipient from embarrassment. When zakat is transferred to a collector (amil) the niat is stated openly and accompanied by a bilateral declaration of offer and acceptance (ijab kabul) that marks all syariah-approved contracts, inclusive of marriage, as valid.
- 7.
Mas’udi currently serves as commissioner (2015–2020) at BAZNAS—Badan Amil Zakat Nasional—the central government institution of zakat management. BAZNAS’ powers were significantly augmented as the result of Law on Zakat Management No. 23, 2011. See Chap. 2.
- 8.
Islam, Abdul-Rauf writes, ‘protects and endorses the personal right to own what one may freely gain, through legitimate means. It is a sacred right. Yet human ownership is tempered by the understanding that everything, in the last analysis, belongs to God. What appears to be ownership is in fact a matter of trusteeship’ (1984: 19). In this regard, it is important to add that wealth in Islam is ‘posited as a component of man’s trial on earth’ (Turner 2006: 63), amounting to a temptation and test of faith: whether it leads to salvation or ruin depends on how one uses the wealth in one’s possession.
- 9.
On the side-lines of their treatises, both Rais (1987) and Hafidhuddin (2002) recognise zakat as right, with Rais cautioning his audience to ‘remember that what we have so far paid as zakat belongs entirely to the poor. It is totally their right whether they use the moneys to buy nutritious food, pay fees for study, buy clothing, or fulfil other urgent needs’ (1987: 61). Similarly, for Hafidhuddin (2002: 9) zakat as hak enjoys the status of ‘clear determination’ (ketetapan yang bersifat pasti) in the Quran, but curiously he refrains from exploring the full implications of such observation.
- 10.
Go to http://ahadees.com/arabic-surah-51-60.html for the Arabic text and expert recitation.
- 11.
- 12.
The quote is from Kitab Asrar al-Zakah which is the fifth book of the first quarter of the larger study entitled, Ihya’ ‘Ulum Al-Din. Kitab Asrar al-Zakah has been translated by Nabih Amin Faris as The Mysteries of Almsgiving [sic] (1966).
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Retsikas, K. (2020). Dividing the Present. In: A Synthesis of Time. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34933-2_2
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