Productive Zakat Distribution by Zakat Institutions in Malaysia

Zakat is one of the five pillars of Islam. The significance of zakat is largely attributed to its effectiveness as a distribution tool in the process of wealth circulation and social security. Therefore, effective management and distribution of zakat funds is very important to improve quality of life and alleviate poverty of recipients. Many initiatives that have been done by zakat institutions to distribute zakat fund to asnaf. The initiatives include distribution of zakat funds productively and unproductive. Unproductive method that has been used before is a direct distribution of fund to asnaf. Recently, zakat institution has transformed the unproductive method to productive method. One of productive method is giving zakat fund to potential asnaf in the form of business capital, business tools, business financing and working salary. Each state in Malaysia has its own strategies in the productive zakat distribution to eligible recipients. Therefore, this study describes the productive zakat distribution by zakat institutions in Malaysia. The data obtained from the website of each zakat institution, zakat report, the annual report and previous studies were analyzed using content analysis method to describe management of zakat productive in Malaysia.