ISLAMIC PHILANTHROPY

It is understandable that human security has close-relationship with social security. Social security, in a broader meaning, may include the elimination of detrimental conditions to survival which possibly become triggers of poverty. The fundamental aspects of survival refer to enough food, health, education and protection from discrimination in any situation. Islam, as one of the popular religions with the million adherents spreading around the world, has several programs to improve social security as well as social empowerment through Islamic philanthropy. The spirit to help other people is the main objective of Islamic philanthropy, as philanthropy means love of people. It assures that the philanthropic programs should put the love of human beings to be the top issue. Islamic philanthropy plays important roles in the delivery of social security in terms of survival, progress, and sustenance of poor people. There are, at least, two categories of Islamic charity: obligatory charitable wealth tax (zakat), and permanent endowment or Islamic charitable foundation (waqf).

Zakat is one of the five pillars of Islam which is called regular charity or obligatory charitable wealth tax taken from the rich people (muzakki) and given to the poor people (mustahiq). In other word, zakat will purify the wealth of the haves and fulfill the need of the have nots. The word zakat itself means purification and the purpose is to purify the legally earned wealth. The amount of wealth, according to Hasan (2006), should be at least 2.5% of a person's net income every year. It will be collected by the administrator of zakat (amil) and distributed to eight chosen groups proportionally, i.e. the poor, the needy, those employed to administer the zakat fund, new converts to Islam, those in bondage, those in debt, anything in the cause of God, and the wayfarer. By zakat, the recipients may also be purified from jealousy and hatred to the wealthy people.

The other form of Islamic philanthropy is waqf which is formed through voluntary donation by the owner of a property. Waqf in Salarzahi’s point of view (2010) has two advantages: the hereafter future for the person who make the waqf endowment and the worldly future for the person who get benefits from waqf. The doers of waqf will receive never-ending rewards from God as long as the waqf properties are still preserved by people or organizations which manage the benefits of waqf. In the recent years, cash waqf has become popular since people without many immovable properties may make waqf by depositing some money in certain banks. The banking system prefers cash waqf because it is easier for them to handle than properties or other endowments. There have been examples, such as in Bangladesh, Turkey, and Indonesia, where cash waqf have been distributed as credit to the needy group of people and returns from these loans were distributed to them including on social services.

To sum up, Islamic philanthropy has a significant role to increase the welfare of society. There two main programs of the philanthropy: zakat and waqf. With this spirit, Islamic philanthropy may provide numerous benefits to increase the welfare of society.



References

Hasan, S. (2006). Muslim philanthropy and social security, ISTR Biennial Conference, Retrieved from http://www.istr.org/conferences/bangkok/WPVolume/ Hasan.Samiul.pdf
Salarzahi, H. (2010). Waqf as a social entrepreneurship model in Islam. International Journal of Business and Management, 5 (7). Retrieved form http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ijbm/article/viewFile/6636/5251