In this position, in fact zakat funds that can be
collected in Indonesia increased over times, however
that fund is not appropriate if we compare with the
potential of zakat in Indonesia.
On the other hand, what needs to be considered
related to zakat in Indonesia is the role of zakat
managers or in Fiqh’s terms known as al-‘Amilin
‘ala al-Zakah. The history of zakat management in
Indonesia is inseparable from the active role of
Muslim communities who have already started to
collect and distribute zakat funds earlier than state
(bottom-up). The presence of the state in zakat
management has only been seen since the first zakat
law was promulgated in 1999, and then formed the
National Zakat Agency (BAZNAS) in 2001, while a
similar agency formed by the community has been
operating since 1987.
The state has a dual role in the management of
zakat, as a regulator and operator which is affirmed
in UUPZ 23/2011, this is considered to weaken the
position of civil zakat agency because there is an
effort to centralize zakat management by the state.
With a spirit of democracy and the freedom to
express opinions and aspirations guaranteed by the
Law, the zakat managers from the civil society sued
and conducted a judicial review of UUPZ 23/2011 to
the Constitutional Court because several articles
were considered to violate the Constitution. This is a
real democratic process, in which the civil society is
facilitated with a legal system that allows for a
review of the regulations which is made of the
government, and the all processes have been
regulated in the Indonesian state constitution so it
guarantees the involvement of the civil society as
one of the nation's important democratic elements.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Zakat has become the main theme of research
conducted by many researchers. Many aspects can
be examined from zakat, because of its
multidimensional nature, starting from the legal
aspect of zakat, its management aspects which
consist of collection and distribution, even the
economic aspects of zakat and its accounting can
also be examined.
In Fuadah Johari, Muhammad Ridwan Ab. Aziz,
and Ahmad Fahme Mohd Ali’s research (Johari
2014) during the 2003-2013 periods, they found 108
studies on zakat such as in the form of seminar
papers, journals, and articles that can be tracked on
Google Scholar.
A number of researches on zakat that they found
were divided into four categories as the main focus
of research, namely zakat management, zakat
collection, zakat distribution, and poverty (Johari
2014).
The results of their research showed that the
study of zakat from its empirical aspects was mostly
done with mixed research methods and Malaysia
became the most frequently researched area.
This paper focuses on the discourse of zakat
management and its implementation by the state and
civil society. Several studies on this subject have
also been conducted, such as Saidurrahman's
(Saidurrahman 2013) study which revealed the
tension between BAZ and LAZ which originated
from political aspects in the management of zakat in
Indonesia.
The same thing has been done by Heru Susetyo
who examined aspects of zakat management and its
relation to the state and society. He concluded that
there was competition in the management of zakat in
Indonesia which occurred between government
actors and non-government actors (2015).
Another study was conducted by Aden Rosadi
and Mohammad Anton Athoillah which highlighted
the role of the state and society in the distribution of
zakat funds, between centralization and
decentralization which concluded that in the
Indonesian context, zakat funds are more appropriate
for decentralization, which allows each region to
distribute zakat to its mustahiq in the area (2015).
Decentralization of zakat management is also
supported by Yuni Sudarwati and Nidya Waras
Sayekti's research (Sayekti 2011). They analyze the
impact and consequences if zakat management in
Indonesia is centralized.
According to Russell Powell (Powell 2010) the
management of zakat in some countries that have a
majority Muslim population is divided into three
models, namely, first, the state does not interfere at
all and takes care of zakat even though its citizens
are mostly Muslim, as can be found in Turkey.
Second, the State facilitates management of zakat
clearly regulated in its laws, but the roles and
positions of each country are different from each
other, it happens in Egypt, Jordan, Iran, Kuwait,
Bangladesh, Bahrain, Lebanon, Qatar, UAE, Oman,
and Indonesia. While the third, the State equates
zakat with tax so that obliges and forces all residents
to pay zakat to the State, this kind of thing happens
to Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Libya, Sudan, Yemen and
Malaysia.
Previous studies on zakat have not explicitly
discussed the model of management and
implementation of democratic zakat. The democratic
nature and its proof of the zakat implementation in
Indonesia is the distinction of this research and
different from other studies.
The Democratic Zakat Implementation Model: A Shared Role between State and Civil Society of Indonesia
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