International Journal of Islamic Economics and Finance Studies, 2019/2: 90-110 The Role of Zakat Potential in Reducing Poverty in Turkey Niyazi Gümüş * Fatih Yardımcıoğlu** Nurullah Altıntaş*** Received: 11.06.2019 Accepted: 27.07.2019 DOI: 10.25272/ijisef.575488 Type: Research Article Abstract Poverty has been the leading social and economic problem of societies both in the past and today for the decades. This study examines the status of poverty in the Turkish economy and the role of zakat in poverty reduction. The zakat potential is analyzed in three methods and it is concluded that poverty in Turkey could be completely resolved via a potential zakat fund. It is suggested that to reduce poverty in Turkey, zakat should be enforced by favor of the state and it should be based on institutional foundations. Keywords: Poverty, Reduction Poverty, Zakat, Zakat Potential Jel Codes: E62, I31, P24, Z12. * PhD Student, Sakarya University, Institute of Social Sciences, E-mail:
[email protected]; This study is derived from the doctoral dissertation titled “A solution to poverty reduction: an example of a zakat fund”, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3928-6937 **Assoc. Professor, Sakarya University, Faculty of Political Sciences, Department of Public Finance, E- mail:
[email protected], ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7758-8549 ***Assistant Professor, Sakarya University, Faculty of Political Sciences, Department of Economics, E- mail:
[email protected], ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9425-3516 Uluslararası İslam Ekonomisi ve Finansı Araştırmaları Dergisi, 2019/2: 90-110 90 The Role of Zakat Potential in Reducing Poverty in Turkey Introduction Poverty has been the leading fundamental problem since the beginning of the history of humanity, and even today, societies try to overcome it.