International Shari'ah Research Academy for Islamic Finance (ISRA)

This research examines zakah obligations on Islamic financial institutions in order to explore the relationship between the legal status of Islamic financial institutions and zakah obligations. For this purpose, the paper first examines definitions of legal entity in both common and Islamic law, analyses jurists’ opinions on its legality and examines the applicability of jurists’ views to IFIs. The second part focuses on Muslim jurists’ rulings on IFIs paying zakah. In this respect, views on zakah obligations on different types of Islamic financial institutions are comparatively examined. The research concludes with certain recommendations to enhance understanding of this issue and help achieve better adherence to the Shari'ah with regards to zakah payment.