Fiqh Zakat International Conference 2015

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Ahmed Ehtesham Uddin

- National Zakat Foundation (NZF)

- PhD Candidate at UCL Institute of Education – University of London.

November 2015

ahmed.uddin@nzf.org.uk

www.nzf.org.uk

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Euripides, Electra (413 BC)

I care for riches, to make gifts

To friends, or lead a sick man back to health

With ease and plenty. Else small aid is wealth

For daily gladness; once a man be done

With hunger, rich and poor are all as one

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The need for Zakat interventions to facilitate

poverty alleviation in the UK: a model for

Muslims living as a minority in developed

nations.

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Inherited Inequality

- “Society is becoming ever more fragmented as the very rich pull away

from the rest” - Economist: Thomas Piketty’s book Capital in the 21st

Century.

- Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett in their book The Spirit Level state

that after a certain point of development, how well a society performs

is dependant not on how wealthy it is but on how equal it is.

- Muslim jurist called Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi (767 — 820 CE) -

existing socio-economic order in that society is preserved

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Poverty or inequality?

• Japan and some of the Scandinavian countries at the top of the chart,

the richest 20 per cent are less than four times as rich as the poorest

20 per cent.

• At the bottom of the chart are countries in which these differences are

at least twice as big, including two in which the richest 20 per cent get

about nine times as much as the poorest.

• Among the most unequal are Singapore, USA, Portugal and the United

Kingdom.

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Incubation of social problems

• An unequal society - we are prone to a host of social problems:

- Level of trust

- Mental illness (including drug and alcohol addiction)

- Life expectancy and infant mortality

- Obesity

- Children’s educational performance

- Teenage births

- Homicides

- Imprisonment rates

- Social mobility

• Despite our affluence, we have many social failures.

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UK Muslims: the local context

•Deprivation

46% (1.22 million) of the Muslim population resides

in the 10% most deprived.

In 2001, 33% of the Muslim population resided in

the 10% most deprived localities.

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• Health and Disability

For the age group of 50 years and above, it is 24.1% for Muslims, which

is double the percentage for the population as a whole (12.1%).

There are about 50 local authority districts where 40% or more of

Muslim women over 65 years of age are in bad health.

• Economic Activity/Inactivity

19.8% of the Muslim population is in fulltime employment, compared to

34.9% in the overall population.

7.2% of Muslims are unemployed compared to 4.0% in the overall

population.

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• Homeless and Prison population

While 2.2% of the overall population are in hostels or temporary shelters

for the homeless, this is 5.1% within the Muslim population.

Muslim prisoners – 14.4% of the prison population compared to 7.7% in

2002.

General population: 1 in 20 but in prison 1 in 7.

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Relative Poverty

Relative poverty is understood and measured by taking into

consideration contemporary norms and social standards, and are higher

than absolute standards. This can change as the cost of living, changing

incomes, needs and social habits are all always shifting over time

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‘Relative Poverty’

The understanding that needs are relative to time and society has a long history:

• Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi (767 — 820 CE)

• Adam Smith - The Wealth of Nations published in 1776

• Karl Marx, the revolutionary socialist also observed similarly in 1849 that ‘our needs and enjoyments spring from society; we measure them therefore by society’. • Over a century later in 1958 J.K. Galbraith, the American economist -

Affluent Society

• Poverty researchers now commonly subscribe to the definition invented by Peter Townsend, the British sociologist.

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The role of Zakat?

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How the National Zakat Foundation operates:

Services for Zakat recipients

– 01: Distribution of hardship grants

Livelihood Ladder: surviving, coping, adapting and

accumulating.

– 02: Zakat Projects/Institutions.

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Hardship Grant • NZF receives ca. 100 applications per month from those in need

around the UK: up to £90,000 per month.

• Team of caseworkers specialise in assessing applications.

• Team ensures that only those who are eligible to receive Zakat are given Zakat.

• Eligible recipients will be able to access hardship grants.

• Here for the long run: livelihood ladder assessment.

• Start mapping project: analysis of data captured.

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Projects: outcome of analysis

• Three supported housing projects for single,

homeless women:

– London, 14 bed, since Oct 2012

– Birmingham, 8 bed, since April 2013

–Manchester, 5 bed, since Sept 2014

•One project for young, male ex-offenders:

– London, 8 bed, since June 2014

•Refugee Doctors Project

•Student Scholarships: Creating Ulema and Phd

Students.

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Continued…

It’s evidence-based, organic

and endorsed by both Zakat

recipients and payers.

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Maimonides

• In the Jewish tradition we find in the works of Maimonides, the twelfth

century Andalusian philosopher writes about similar concepts of not

shaming the recipient.

• Maimonides works has laid the foundations of modern principles of

enlightened charity by asserting that the highest form of giving was to

help the poor to rehabilitate themselves, thus encouraging self-

reliance. (Benthall et al, 2003:17)

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Eight levels in giving charity (tzedakah)

On an ascending level, they are as follows:

• 8. When donations are given grudgingly.

• 7. When one gives less than he should, but does so cheerfully.

• 6. When one gives directly to the poor upon being asked.

• 5. When one gives directly to the poor without being asked.

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• 4. Donations when the recipient is aware of the donor's identity, but the donor still does not know the specific identity of the recipient.

• 3. Donations when the donor is aware to whom the charity is being given, but the recipient is unaware of the source.

• 2. Giving assistance in such a way that the giver and recipient are unknown to each other. Communal funds, administered by responsible people are also in this category.

• 1. The highest form of charity is to help sustain a person before they become impoverished by offering a substantial gift in a dignified manner, or by extending a suitable loan, or by helping them find employment or establish themselves in business so as to make it unnecessary for them to become dependent on others.

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The Dream…?

• According to the Pew Forum the total number of Muslims in Europe in

2010 was about 44 million (6%) excluding Turkey.

• The total number of Muslims in the European Union in 2010 was about

19 million (3.8%)

• If only 4 million Muslims paid their Zakat yearly: our average is £250,

then that would equate to 1 billion pounds.

What is the potential power of Zakat in Europe?

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Our vision

is a pious, confident, selfless and self-sufficient

UK Muslim community,

where no individual in need is left abandoned.

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Our mission is to provide the UK Muslim community with an

end-to-end Zakat service, encompassing:

Education, Calculation, Collection, Distribution

Zakat in the West

• We have launched NZF in Canada and Australia launched

• Requests for it to be launched in France, Ireland, New Zealand

• Zakat Foundation of America, USA

• Zakat Inspired, USA

• Model can be used anywhere and in any context – Muslims are obliged

to pay Zakat wherever they may be: living as a minority or as a majority.

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“Do not use your energy except for a cause more noble than yourself.

Such a cause cannot be found except in Almighty God Himself: to preach

the truth, to defend womanhood, to repel humiliation which your Creator

has not imposed upon you, to help the oppressed. Anyone who uses his

energy for the sake of the vanities of the world is like someone who

exchanges gemstones for gravel. There is no nobility in anyone who lacks

faith. The wise man knows that the only fitting price for his soul is a

place in Paradise.”

- Ibn Hazm

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Ahmed Ehtesham Uddin

- National Zakat Foundation (NZF)

- PhD Candidate at UCL Institute of Education – University of London.

November 2015

ahmed.uddin@nzf.org.uk

www.nzf.org.uk

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