The contribution of zakat to incomecreating asset for the poor in Selangor

Abstract

It was not until recently that the zakat department in Malaysia felt an urgent need to provide capital assistance to the poor. Such a realisation evolved mainly due to the rapid increase in the number of poor people along with the state development. Thus, this paper tries to see the contribution of zakat in fighting poverty through income creating programme for the poor in Selangor. This study adopts 50 percent of the zakat recipients` population from the four districts in Selangor. The success of the recipients is critically evaluated not only from the demographic factor but also from the social and economic factor. A comparison is made before and after the poor receive the assistance. This is to ensure that they are really out of the pit of poverty. Though more than half of the recipients are successful in the project, still there are ample rooms to improve the effectiveness of the existing programme. The intricacy between the MAlS`s poverty line income and the national poverty line income needs to be resolved in order to make more appropriate evaluation of the poverty eradication programmes as been initiated by the government.