1. 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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2. 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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3. 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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4. 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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5. 5

6. 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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7. 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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8. 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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9. • 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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10. • 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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11. 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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12. ‘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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13. The role of Zakat?
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14. 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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15. 15

16. 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: surviving,
coping, adapting and accumulating.
• Start mapping project: analysis of data captured.
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17. 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. 17

18. Continued…
It’s evidence-based,
organic and endorsed by
both Zakat recipients and
payers.
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19. 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.
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20. 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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21. • 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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22. 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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23. 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

26. 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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27. “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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28. 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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