Islamic Alternative to Poverty Alleviation, Zakah, Awqaf and Microfinance: Bangladesh perspective

Poverty alleviation is a much talked-about issue in contemporary politico-economic discourse across the globe. Many NGOs and other types of organizations are striving hard to address this issue but their success story is not as encouraging as one might perceive. Fundamental to their limitation is the basic fact that they are using secular and value-neutral methods to achieve their goals. In recent days Microfinance has emerged as a dominant mechanism for poverty alleviation. This paper critiques contemporary perspectives on microfinance by arguing that the concept of poverty alleviation is an ethical and moral one. The author proposes that Islam provides a viable alternative for alleviating poverty by offering a mechanism that is in-built and integrated in social and financial systems. In this paper, a humble attempt has been made to discuss the Islamic institutions of zakat, waqf, and qard hasan as mechanisms of alleviating poverty directly, as well as of using them as sources of micr