Legal Analysis and Proposing a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Model for Paying Zakat (tithe) based on the Principles of Islam
Subject Areas : All jurisprudential issues
Ahmad Shams
1
(گروه حقوق، واحد تهران جنوب، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی، تهران، ایران)
Kiamars Fathi
2
(گروه مدیریت صنعتی، واحد تهران جنوب، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی،
تهران، ایران)
Keywords: decision making models, Zakat (tithe), Multi attribute decision makin, Substituting rate for Zakat it, Pairwise comparison,
Abstract :
Zakat (tithe) is one of the religious duties of Islam that all Islamic sects believe it. Currently, all the Islamic countries are in pursuit of the divine decree with modern scientific methods. Given that, Zakat has many dimensions. So, it can be considered from different perspectives. This causes the execution of this decree to be associated with complications. Using decision making techniques to pay and receive zakat would help to reduce confusion, and also to run much better this divine decree. The major Shiite scholars believe that paying Zakat is limited to nine items. These items include: gold, silver, raisins, dates, cows, sheep, camels, barley and wheat. While major Sunni scholars believe that paying zakat is applicable to a lot of goods. This article is based on the Shiite perspective. In his article through reviewing the current literature about zakat, four basic measures, i.e. economic, juridical, legal and accounting were identified. Based on these four measures the hierarchical analysis model was designed. Of these four measures, economic measure consists of sub- indices. The nine items of Zakat based on the three measures of liquidity capability, storage capability and removal of basic needs were evaluated and concluded that in the current situation of the country Zakat payers prefer to pay their zakat in the form of good instead of in cash, because they believe that the value of cash for charity in high. And prefer to settle their zakat more from less valuable items. As a result, responsible persons for collecting Zakat should provide their facilities to collect Zakat from the items that are most likely to be given, as this study has shown.
