Poverty in Islamic

Political Economy
Perspective
Outline

 Introduction
 Islamic Perspective on Poverty
 Zakat and Nisab as The Poverty Measures
 Characteristic of poor
 Maqasid Sharian and poverty
Introduction
 Poverty: Latin word paupertas : small means and moderate
circumstances
 Definition: the abatement of decent standard of life, due to lack of
income or of other economic resources, which are monitored by
tracking the capacity to consume, through monetary estimation of
income or consumption
 Untuk mengukur kemiskinan, BPS menggunakan konsep kemampuan
memenuhi kebutuhan dasar (basic needs approach). Dengan
pendekatan ini, kemiskinan dipandang sebagai ketidakmampuan dari
sisi ekonomi untuk memenuhi kebutuhan dasar makanan dan bukan
makanan yang diukur dari sisi pengeluaran (BPS: 2022)
 No agreed definition
Islamic Perspective on Poverty

 Poverty in Islam: wellbeing here and hereafter

 Focused on religious and ethical problems
 Oftentimes split into two: fakir and miskin
 Imam Syafii and Imam Abu Hanifah differs in the definition of fakir and miskin
 The difference based on QS 17:79
 The difference in understanding of private ownership
Zakat and Nisab as The Poverty
Measures
 Zakat: obligatory payment made annually under Islamic law on certain kinds
of property and used for charitable and religious purposes.
 Nisab: benchmarks and measures in which zakat becomes obligatory
 Nisab cannot be used as a poverty line: It doesn’t paint a complete picture on
Islamic views
 Ideally, zakat is used as fiscal tools by government, not poverty measure
‫‪Hadith on Poverty‬‬

‫‪‬حديث أيب هريرة أن رسول اهلل ﷺ قال‪ :‬ليس املسكني‬

‫الذي يطوف على الناس‪ ،‬ترده اللقمة واللقمتان‪ ،‬والتمرة‬
‫والتمرتان‪ ،‬ولكن املسكني الذي ال جيد ِغىًن يغنيه‪ ،‬وال‬
‫يُفطن له فيُتصدق عليه‪ ،‬وال يقوم فيسأل الناس‪ .‬متفق‬
‫عليه‪.‬‬
Charateristic of Poor

 Based on QS 2:273
Characteristic of Poor (2)

 Mainly, there are two things considered when measuring poverty:

 Worldly confinement
 Welfare if this life and hereafter
 Maqasid Syariah is the proposed concept to measure absolute poverty
Maqasid Syariah and Poverty

 Measured through three levels of MS: dharuriyyat, hajjiyat, tahsiniyat

 Poverty line is in dharuriyyat level
 If classified further in 5 sub-level, din and nafs part are the absolute
minimum
Poverty and Happiness

 Even in poverty state, the poor can still reach happiness

The Role of Government in Poverty
Alleviation
 Providing basic necessities
 Ensuring the rules of the market (hisbah institution)
 Zakat as fiscal tools
 Heavy tax on several goods and services (unused land, big company, etc)
 Providing job opportunity
 Friendly policies for SME enterprises