Zakat: Islam’s missed opportunity to limit predatory taxation

One of Islam’s five canonical pillars is a predictable, fixed, and mildly progressive tax system called zakat. It was meant to finance various causes typical of a pre-modern government. Implicit in the entire transfer system was personal property rights as well as constraints on government—two key e...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Public choice 2020-03, Vol.182 (3/4), p.395-416
Main Author: Kuran, Timur
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
7th century
Christianity
Economics
Economics and Finance
Finance
Governance
Insecurity
Islam
Islamic law
Muslims
Political Science
Politics
Poverty
Progressive taxes
Property rights
Public Finance
Quran
Security
Taxation
Wealth
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Summary:One of Islam’s five canonical pillars is a predictable, fixed, and mildly progressive tax system called zakat. It was meant to finance various causes typical of a pre-modern government. Implicit in the entire transfer system was personal property rights as well as constraints on government—two key elements of a liberal order. Those features could have provided the starting point for broadening political liberties under a state with explicitly restricted functions. Instead, just a few decades after the rise of Islam, zakat opened the door to arbitrary political rule and material insecurity. A major reason is that the Quran does not make explicit the underlying principles of governance. It simply outlines the specifics of zakat as they related to conditions in seventh-century Arabia.
ISSN:0048-5829
1573-7101
DOI:10.1007/s11127-019-00663-x