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The COVID-19 pandemic caused an economic downturn, bringing about the emergence of new forms of poverty in society. This study examines how Islamic philanthropy organizations in Indonesia that collect, manage, and distribute zakat, sedekah, and waqf have adapted to the global pandemic to continue serving people in need in urban areas by using digital platforms. The use of technology has accelerated philanthropic practices, ranging from fundraising, distributing, and delivering services to coordinating duties and responsibilities during the pandemic, especially in an urban area such as Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia. By focusing on the experiences of two leading Islamic philanthropy organizations, Badan Amil Zakat Nasional and Dompet Dhuafa, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia, this study reveals that Islamic philanthropic organizations have adopted several changes and innovations by embracing technology. The article also argues that Islamic philanthropy has had a significant role in mitigating the impact of the worldwide pandemic on society's vulnerabilities and economic problems through technological support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the production of fatwas and pluralism of the Islamic legal perspective on almsgiving (zakat) issued by Muslim civil society organizations in Indonesia and analyzes the goals, methods, and logic of Islamic scholars in formulating their religious judgments (fatwa). Religious teachings have been instrumental in underpinning the spirit of giving and volunteering. Yet, questions about how religious teachings are interpreted through various Islamic legal examinations remain interesting to discuss, partly because the nuances of the fatwa on zakat indicate Muslims' pluralistic and dynamic reception of Islamic teachings. Some Muslim civil society organizations have produced hundreds of fatwas on zakat in response to Muslim communities' questions. This paper argues that efforts to contextualize zakat practices and endeavors to preserve the orthodoxy of the zakat tradition among Indonesian Islamic scholars and fatwa institutions have led to diversity in formulating legal reasoning and in turn resulted in fatwa pluralism and fragmented zakat practices in Indonesia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Members of the Kerinci ethnic group area migrated to and settled in Malaysia centuries before the nationstate era arrived on the Malay Peninsula. Their migration continues in the present, and they face a range of problems, such as ongoing changes in the nation-state in the Malay Peninsula, migration policies, available types of occupations and aspects of their social-economic and cultural context. This paper focuses on the lives of members of ethnic groups from the regency of Kerinci, Sumatra, who have been living as migrants in Malaysia for more than three generations. It explores the ethnic identification of Kerinci migrants in Malaysia and investigates how they have preserved their legacy and protected the land that was inherited from their ancestors. This paper argues that the migration of some Kerinci to Malaysia entails a preservation of cultural differences and reunification of some families, as well as the continuation of certain family inheritances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spawning of Muslim philanthropic associations signifies an increasingly visible Islamic social and political activism, in Indonesia as elsewhere in the Muslim world. Acting as non-state welfare providers, the associations provide "social security" to poor and disadvantaged groups as a means of promoting the public good. In the intricate relationship between state and citizen in the world's largest Muslim country, Muslim philanthropic ideals of promoting the well-being of the community (ummah) are in turn contested. Will they lead to a more democratic citizenship or to new types of clientelistic relations within a plural society? This research deals with the following questions: To what extent are welfare issues perceived by Muslim philanthropic organizations as shaping a new debate over "citizenship"? Can the Islamic concept of ummah be reconciled with modern ideas of citizenship?. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the origin and development of the ideas and practice of zakat (Islamic tax) on salary and identifies how it affects the nature of zakat practice in contemporary Indonesia. The recent trend suggests that Indonesian Muslims are attempting to translate and reinterpret the Islamic concept of social justice by utilizing zakat on salary (zakat profesi) as a discursive center. Despite the fact that this has been the subject of heated debate among Muslim scholars since the 1980s, the Indonesian state has attempted to make its payment mandatory by enacting zakat regulations at both the provincial and district levels. This new phenomenon is stimulating new debates among the country's Islamic scholars over the legality, from a jurisprudential aspect, of imposing zakat regulations on civil servants. Some believe that zakat practice has been precisely prescribed in the Qur'an and Sunnah and thus such an "innovation" is not necessary; others consider zakat to belong to that part of the Islamic ethical and economic system that is open to reinterpretation and innovation. Disagreement among Islamic scholars, competition between civil society organizations and state agencies, and tension between the government (political authorities) as a policymaker and people at the grassroots level are indications of how almsgiving is contested in democratic Indonesia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates medieval Muslim literature on the study of non-Islamic religions through the writings of al-Biruni and al-Shahrastani in their dealing with Hind (India) and the nomenclature of world religions. I focus on their perceptions of mono- theism and polytheism. My findings show that they used different approaches, categories, and classification models of world religious traditions in general, and of Hind's religious traditions in particular. Al-Biruni classifies Indian religions according to the religious outlooks found in Hindu texts or sayings of Hindu philosophers/theologians and in the attitudes of ordinary people in a popular context. Al-Shahrastani categorizes the divisions and subdivisions of Hindu beliefs and practices according to types of ‘idol worshippers.’ This article points out that they dealt with some conceptual issues in their presentations, such as ‘religious representation,’ ‘intermediaries,’ and ‘anthropomorphism.’ [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]