ภูมิทัศน์ของงานศึกษาเกี่ยวกับซะกาตและประเด็นการวิจัยซะกาตเพื่อพัฒนาความยุติธรรมทางสังคม (A Landscape of Studies on Zakat and Research Agendas to Study Zakat for Development of Social Justice)

Abstract

Abstract

The present article is an attempt to reach an understanding of whether zakat has potential to reduce wealth gap and realise social justice. It is an analysis and discussion of issues arising from previous studies on zakat in order to map out a landscape of the studies on zakat and propose research agendas for the development of zakat for social justice. It was found that the landscape of the studies on zakat covers zakat’s impacts, management, calculation methods, including zakat and social justice. The article argues that the promotion of social justice—through poverty elimination, empowerment of the underprivileged, healthcare services, and religious communities—will be enhanced by effective zakat management. It proposes research agendas for the development of zakat for social justice as follows: 1) a study on ways to encourage zakat payment in Thailand, 2) a study on causal relationships between zakat and poverty elimination, 3) a study to obtain lessons learned about zakat management in other countries, 4) a study on concepts and principles of zakat allocation by zakat funds that promote social justice, 5) an analysis of the concepts of justice and social justice, 6) a study on how to apply religious teachings on zakat in the contemporary context, and 7) a study to develop a software to calculate different categories of zakat e.g. merchandise for business, livestock, and crops.