Strengthening Drug Rehabilitation Centers through Zakah Fund

Drug abuse is a serious problem that has been faced by our country since a long time ago. The fight against drug abuse involves not only efforts in putting an end to its trafficking but also the rehabilitation of those who suffer from drug addiction. In order to rehabilitee the drug addicts; there are government agencies that have been organized to handle it. In addition there are also private drug rehabilitation centers run by non-governmental organizations. Unfortunately, these centers often face the problem of shortage of funds for rehabilitation activities. As most drug addicts are the Muslims and most of the private drug rehabilitation centers are run by Muslims, this study attempts to find out whether in case where these centers faced financial problems in carrying out their activities, can they be helped through zakah fund or not? This paper reviews the argument forwarded by Muslim scholars in interpreting the meanings of zakah beneficiaries and try to find the similarity between drug addicts with several types of zakah beneficiaries. It also try to find out ways where drug rehabilitation centers can gain a portion from this fund in order to support their activities. Through the discussions, it is concluded that drug rehabilitation centres can be help through zakah fund with several conditions.