Towards A Unified Zakat System

One important issue, which needs to be investigated, andwhich is the core of this study, is Zakat accounting. Theaim is to establish a framework towards developing basicaccounting principals for Zakat applicable to the financialsystem of Muslim countries. Moreover, dealing with thissubject would impose the necessity to investigate otherassociated issues; religious, economic and managerial. Therecent, so-called Islamic revival dominates almost allIslamic countries. The movement motivates Muslims torediscover their independent identity and religious values.In addition, there has been a changing global commercialenvironment, and real economic challenges have followed thefall of some significant Islamic economies. These changes,together with the decline in oil revenue in Muslim Arabcountries, have stimulated governments to reconsider thestructure of their economies and attempt to reshape them,making them flexible toward these developments.Accordingly, these countries have recently been involved indrawing up plans to combat the new challenges. One aspectof these new policies is the attempt to unify and harmonisethe accounting system applicable to the GCC countries. Thepossibility of applying the Zakat system in these countrieswas examined. In doing so, the Saudi experience in3