CIRIC Zakat Research Program: Public Insight Note

This Public Insight Note introduces CIRIC’s Zakat Research Program and the institutional perspective guiding its development. Beyond its spiritual and redistributive dimensions, zakat is approached as a complex institutional mechanism involving rules, collection systems, governance structures, accountability, beneficiary identification and channels of redistribution.

The note outlines the contemporary challenges surrounding its institutionalization and presents CIRIC’s interdisciplinary approach, combining Islamic jurisprudence, economics, public policy, governance and institutional analysis. It also introduces the program’s broader ambition: to map contemporary zakat ecosystems, assess their institutional capacity and explore how this central Islamic obligation can be translated into credible and effective institutional arrangements.