Perceptions about the common malpractice of Zakat paying in Bangladesh during Covid-19 pandemic

What is it about?

A nationwide common practice in Zakat distribution has been prevailing in Bangladesh for the last few decades. The paper is a groundbreaking effort to investigate the perceptions of the Zakat payers about the common malpractices and to highlight whether any change in the conventional distribution of Zakat has occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study also aims to extract the common perception of the Zakat payers regarding the validity of the changed practices during the pandemic. The study adopts the qualitative research approach allowing an in-depth interview approach based on an unstructured questionnaire schedule to obtain information from the Zakat payers, complemented by the Key Informant Interview with the Islamic Scholars. The study obtained data from Zakat payers administering a purposive sampling technique based on two specified criteria. After coding the information on three main contents, content analysis is used to examine the results. The results reveal that although the Zakat payers dislike the common practices because of some antithetical issues, they still practice the same customs. Moreover, they apportion most of the value of Zakat in purchasing low-quality festive-motive clothes for the recipients. They are ignorant about Islamic law and the validity of such practices. According to scholars, these activities are not a pure system of Zakat provision and do not help to alleviate poverty. Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, this practice shifted heavily to buying food items for the poor due to the financial hurdles the poor confronted during the pandemic. Although no solid argument is deduced from the participants about the exactitude of such distributional change, scholars regard the transformation as beneficial to the afflicted and the impoverished who have been affected by the pandemic, as well as not conflicting with the Zakat legislation.

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