A Practical Step towards the Evolution of Islamic Economy

Relying on the Quranic verses, the author tries to introduce alms tax as a social duty in this article. The argument of the present paper is that alms tax is not merely an individual-ethical obligation rather it has been legislated by the Lawgiver to meet the demands of the Islamic society. The fact that only nine valuable items have been mentioned on which alms tax were levied in the early days of Islam indicates that there is no limitation and those items are but some examples of the valuable items. Hence, the Muslims on the basis of the exigencies can change the taxable items. Also the imperfect and one-dimensional understanding of alms tax has led to the emergence of minimal approach to the collection of alms tax and due to the limitations mentioned this divine duty has been practically discarded.A new approach to alms tax will provide the grounds for its collection in the modern age, for it will shed light on the method of its disbursement and distribution on a large scale as well as the role of government as a supervisor.The present article also argues that those entitled to receive alms tax (the poor and destitute) are merely the needy and their lineage or race or other characteristics do not play any role in their entitlement.