Poverty is not new thing for every country in the world. Poverty is not something that can be eliminated, but can only be reduced. Because, living standards and needs are always increasing, along with inflation that continues to occur. For example, there must be one person who is below the average living standard of the community. No matter how advanced the country is, there must be people who are at the bottom of all the people in that country. The poverty standard set by the World Bank, which is people who have an income of less than $ 2 per day. This is measured from PPP or purchasing power parity. The phenomenon of poverty that occurs cannot be measured from one field of science alone, but needs to be studied from various fields of science because poverty is a multidimensional problem. The point is, poverty is a problem that needs to be studied from all aspects, both from the aspects of economics, health, education, and politics.
Various ways have been taken by countries in the world to alleviate poverty, as has been implemented by the United Nations in all countries in the world starting from the MDGs, to the SDGs. MDGs is an acronym for the Millennium Development Goals, namely development goals that are based on several main points of social and environmental problems. The MDGs have 8 objectives, 18 targets and 48 indicators compiled by a series of experts from the UN secretariat, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Organization for Development and Economic Cooperation (OECD), and World Bank (Abilawa and Sudarsono, 2016). For more details, please visit the UN official website http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ The MDGs implemented from 2000 to 2015 have ended, now replaced by SDGs, namely the acronym of the Sustainable Development Goals which consists of five elements, namely human, planet, welfare, peace and partnership, to achieve three objectives noble in 2030 namely ending poverty, achieving equality and overcoming climate change. SDGs contain 17 goals and 169 development goals. For more details, please visit the UN official website https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/The efforts that have been made should be appreciated because of a long and complicated process. However, it is better to glance at other alternatives that have higher effectiveness and focus. Some of them are the Grameen Bank which was implemented by M. Yunus, a scholar from Bangladesh who succeeded in empowering family heroes, and productive zakat applied by amil zakat institutions in Indonesia. Zakat means to issue a portion of assets with certain conditions to be given to certain groups (Mustahik) with certain conditions as well. (Hafidhuddin, 2002). In Islam, zakat is an obligatory for those who are able. Zakat is issued 2.5% of the net income of a Muslim. In a hadith narrated by Imam al-Asbahani from Imam at-Thabrani, in the book Al-Ausath and Al-Shaghir, the Messenger of Allāh: said that means: “Indeed Allah SWT has obliged the Muslim hajjers to oblige zakat to overcome poverty. It is not possible for an indigent person to suffer from hunger or lack of clothing, except for the stinginess that is in a wealthy Muslim . Remember, Allah SWT will do careful calculations and hold them accountable and will then torture them with painful torment “. In the hadith there is an affirmation that the participation of the upper class in alleviating poverty is a significant matter. In the hadith it is also emphasized that zakat is a social safeguard. The hadith also reminded of the large contribution of mischievous and miserly behavior towards poverty. From scientific articles written by Irfan Syauqi Beik, the analysis shows that zakat can reduce the number of poor families from 84 percent to 74 percent. Then from the depth aspect of poverty, zakat is also proven to be able to reduce the poverty gap and income gap, which is indicated by the decrease in P1 value from Rp 540,657.01 to Rp 410,337.06 and I value from 0.43 to 0.33. While in terms of the severity of poverty, zakat is also able to reduce the severity of poverty which is characterized by a decrease in the Sen Index value (P2) from 0.46 to 0.33 and the FGT index value from 0.19 to 0.11. This study is an undeniable proof that zakat instruments have extraordinary potential. But why is Indonesia still unable to become a developed country even though the role of zakat is very significant? Maybe this question is a basic question. Because, as I stated earlier, poverty is a multidimensional problem that does not only involve one study or scientific field to eradicate it, but from various lines of science. Such as education, health, policy, politics, state budget, income distribution, and others. Zakat is an alternative that can be optimized if all aspects involved in eradicating poverty work together to support zakat. For example, the entry of zakat into a country’s development planning, where in each village there are professional zakat managers who can involve volunteers in socializing, conducting censuses, and providing business incubators in the management of productive zakat funds. Zakat can also be used in the construction of free hospitals, free education, and development of community empowerment centers. Even BAZNAS (National Amil Zakat Institution)has empowered the assisted villages. Why is the village? Because the village is a region that has a poverty rate higher than the city, and has abundant natural resources. Without villages, food is powerless. Without villages, the balance of the environment is not maintained. Villages play an important role in social and environmental life. Finally, zakat and poverty alleviation are two things that are closely related. The need for support and cooperation of various parties involved in the two things above. Basically, all parties living on this earth are involved in the two things above if they want to see the miracle of zakat in realizing prosperity which is the dream of all people in this world. To get some new information about zakat, please visit http://puskasbaznas.com/national-zakat-index/nzi/download/72-nzi-2
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