اطار نظري لاستخدام اموال الزكاة في تسهيل توفير التمويل الاصغر (نحو استراتيجية لمكافحة الفقر في السودان)

The objective of this paper is to answer to the questions relating to; the concept of micro-finance as a poverty eradication tool, the acceptability of the use of Zakah funds in providing micro-finance to the poor and needy from a Shariah perspective and the sustainable approaches and means whereby the Zakah Chamber could do so in the Sudan. The author adopted an inferential deductive approach to arrive at a conclusion that the majority juristic viewpoint would weigh against any investment of the Zakah funds by the Zakah Chamber. Any alternative juristic view concurring to such investment tends to make that conditional upon the investment being carried out by the poor and needy themselves and following the satisfaction of their immediate needs. The paper concludes with the practical implications that the Zakah Chamber should transfer the burden of financing the projects of the poor and needy to the banks and other financial institutions. And, that the Chamber should limit itself to the role of facilitator of such funding by providing the necessary guarantees called for by these financiers and bailing out those heavily indebted poor and needy, if any.