Do religiosity, gender and educational background influence zakat compliance? The case of Malaysia
International Journal of Social Economics
ISSN: 0306-8293
Article publication date: 2 August 2018
Issue publication date: 6 August 2018
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of religiosity, gender and Islamic educational background of Muslims on zakat compliance. It also aims to identify which dimensions of religiosity are significantly related to zakat compliance.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses a self-administered questionnaire that was distributed to working Muslims individuals in Klang Valley, Malaysia. Analysis of the data was based on 690 usable questionnaires.
Findings
The findings show that religiosity had a significant influence on zakat compliance and three dimensions of religiosity, namely obligation, virtues and vices, and optional ritual, were significantly related to zakat compliance. Gender was also significantly related to zakat compliance, but in a negative direction, suggesting that Muslim working females are less compliant to zakat obligations compared to their male counterparts. It is found that formal Islamic educational background had no significant influence on zakat compliance.
Practical implications
Given the importance of zakat collection to the growth of the economy and society, the findings of this paper might provide some insights to Muslim-majority countries and zakat institutions which areas require more attention to encourage zakat payment among Muslims.
Originality/value
Compared to prior zakat studies, the findings of this study were derived from a larger sample size of Muslim working respondents. Furthermore, this study also identifies which dimensions of religiosity are significantly related to zakat compliance. Hence this study enriches the scarce literature on zakat and religiosity.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors of this paper have not made their research data set openly available. Any enquiries regarding the data set can be directed to the corresponding author.
The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support provided by the University of Malaya under the Equitable Society Research Cluster (ESRC) research Grant RP015B-13SBS. The authors would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers and the editor for their invaluable comments and suggestions which has helped to improve the paper.
Citation
Abdullah, M. and Sapiei, N.S. (2018), "Do religiosity, gender and educational background influence zakat compliance? The case of Malaysia", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 45 No. 8, pp. 1250-1264. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSE-03-2017-0091
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited