Mengembangkan Indikator Ekonomi Islam Melalui Zakat: Sebuah Kerangka untuk Mengukur Kesejahteraan Masyarakat/Negara Muslim

Abstract

One topic on Islamic economics that continues to be discussed since its establishment as a discipline in the scientific field is on how it differs from the conventional one. Both are on the same area that is discussing on the nature and matters of the economy, but with different epistemological perspectives which then creating different solutions. In terms of welfare, conventional economics has developed economic tools to gauge the wealth or the economic power of a country or society. The Gross Domestic Products (GDP) is one of the primary indicators. It can be obtained in one of two ways: either by adding up what everyone earned in a year (income approach), or by adding up what everyone spent (expenditure method). In Islamic perspective, it is not that the GDP method is not Islamic. It is Islamic so long as the income and expenditure can be verified in terms of its halal condition. It means, in order to use GDP as a Shariah compliance tool to gauge the welfare of the Muslim society or a Muslim populous country, it should have gone through a halal screening process first which would take a longer process to proceed. However, the Islamic economic measuring tool can be derived from Islamic pillar/value which is more effective and efficient. Since one of the important points in Islamic economics is on getting and spending of rizq in halal ways, the suitable Islamic pillar is the Zakah. The emphasize of this paper is on developing framework on zakah as Islamic economics‘ indicator as measurement of the economic power (welfare) which at the same time gauging the social awareness and or religiosity of a society or a country as well. In the conceptualization of the Zakah Indicator, the method used in this paper is analytical review and inductive method. The research examines the GDP and assesses the difficulties faced by the Muslim in applying this tool. Then it will analyze and construct the framework needed for the indicator which covers the Islamic and conventional literatures. The Zakah indicator framework eventually can be used as the foundation for a more complex indicator/index for the next research paper. This is important for policy makers and or government and investors. It is since that it covers the dimension of socio-economy and spiritual life of mankind. We can say there is correlation between development of economy, social and spirituality.