Non-Monetary Poverty Measurement in Malaysia: A Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah Approach

Islamic organizations such as zakāt institutions conceptualize poverty from the monetary perspective to identify the poor group. Despite being the most common method of measuring poverty in Malaysia and many other countries, there are some drawbacks in the monetary approach. For instance, non-monetary factors such as the type of dwelling, the ownership of wealth and health care which reflect the quality of life are not included. Thus, a more comprehensive poverty measurement is deemed appropriate to reflect poverty. The objective of the paper is to propose an Islamic poverty measurement, proxied by Islamic Poverty Index (IPI)Islamic Poverty Index (IPI). The present study is a quantitative study consisting of three main stages. Firstly, the consensus of scholars was sought in deciding the dimensions of the IPI and their indicators. Secondly, weightage determination of each of the dimensions and, thirdly, cut-off points or thresholds were determined. The results of the study confirmed that there were five dimensions of IPI incorporating maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah principles with religion and physical self with the highest weighted dimensions followed by knowledge, offspring and wealth. In addition, thirteen variables were identified as the main components of the IPI. Thus, this empirical study was able to propose a non-monetary measurement that is envisaged to reflect the multidimensional phenomena of poverty in a more holistic way and is expected to have an impact on Islamic organizations as it gives a new perspective of measuring poverty.