Islamic finance and instrumentalisation of Islamic redistributive institutions

This articles focuses on how Islamic financial institutions, which have to this point done little to help alleviate poverty, can empower poor members of society who have little access to credit and improve their condition. Redistribution of wealth is one of the major tenets of Islam, institutionalized by inheritance, sadaqa , and zaka . Economic jusitce functions on the principle of equal opportunity and access to resources for all members of society (prior to production), though Allah has ownership to these resources and grants man a collective right to use them. According to the shari`a , man can acquire private property rights through either personal labor or transfer. Zaka should be considered not so much as charity as a levy serving as a form of purification for those who are able to generate a surplus of wealth to provide a mininum standard of living for those who cannot participate in production. Individuals, and to a lesser extent their governments, are ultimately responsible