economic thought in the qur"àn and sunnah 87revenue with that of the Fai"and the one-fifth of Ghanìmah shows
some difference, as will be clarified after looking at the Zakàh as a
source of state revenue.
Zakàh
As mentioned earlier, Zakàh as a religious tax has a unique feature
that is not available to other types of taxes: its religious connota-
tion—the tax is imposed in order to, spiritually, purify Muslims. The
stipulation of the levy is in the Qur"àn, and the revenue of the tax
is to be spent in a manner specified in the Book. The rate of tax
is not determined by the Revelation, however. The Prophet, inspired
by God’s will, determined the rates, organised the tax base, and
clarified the threshold.
The interesting feature of Zakàh as a source of revenue to the
state is that in contrast to the previous sources of Fai", and Ghanìmah
it is of more contemporary relevance. Zakàh is more applicable to
our modern time. The tax has existed through history and is still
regarded as a prime source of state finance if and when the state
resorts to it. Recently, with the move towards Islamic revivalism,
various states in the Islamic world, such as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia,
Sudan and Yemen have reintroduced Zakàh to their tax structure
with a view to re-Islamising their taxation system (El-Ashker and
Haq, 1995).
The Qur"ànic stipulation of the way in which the revenue of Zakàh
is to be spent emphasises: (a) the earmarking feature of the Zakàh
tax and (b) the difference between the distribution of its revenue and
that of the Fai"and the one-fifth of Ghanìmah. The Qur"ànic verses
stress that the distribution of Zakàh should be “to the poor, the pau-
per, the people who collect it, the new convert, the liberation of
slaves, the indebted, in the cause of God, and the wayfarer” (Qur"àn
9:60). The revenue should therefore be spent on these items specifically.
Comparing the Zakàh distribution with that of the Fai"and the one-
fifth of the Ghanìmahreveals that when the expenses of collecting the
Zakàh are excluded from the comparison, the net revenue is to be
spent on items that are not particularly specified in the distribution
of the Fai"or the one-fifth of Ghanìmah. If the poor and the pauper
in the Zakàh verse are taken loosely to correspond to the needy in
the Fai"and the one-fifth verses, the items that are specified in the
distribution of Zakàh but not in the others become “the new con-
vert, the liberation of slaves, the indebted, and in the cause of God”.