THE STATUS QUO OF ZAKAT MANAGEMENT IN MALAYSIA: OBSTACLES, OPPORTUNITIES AND DIRECTIONS

Abstract

Since zakat plays a significant rule for Muslims in their religious and socioeconomic life, it must be managed efficiently, and as is due. Malaysia among the Muslim countries that strives to realize the meaning of zakat through a systematic management in its territory. However, due to the various factors, it (zakat management system) might encounter several issues and challenges that hurdle obtaining the objectives of zakat in its practice. Thus, the research aims to study the current progress of zakat in Malaysia and its barriers through the available literature and it attempts to identify the research gap and potential future directions. The study adopts a qualitative research approach where it collects the data from several resources and data bases and analyses the collected data through a rigorous documents analysis and descriptive method. This study finds that the zakat management system in Malaysia is following various steps to improve its efficiency and benefits for the people however, several studies note that some areas such as the performance of zakat institutions, proper distribution, digitalization of the system and realization of poverty alleviation through zakat require more improvement by the zakat authority and the future research as well. The improvement of zakat management and utilization of the zakat fund in the appropriate manner will benefit the society and economy. Subsequently, it will strengthen the trust and confidence of the zakat payers in the zakat system and institutions in Malaysia.