In this thought-provoking CIK Talk, Dr. Sohail Hanif — Chief Executive Officer of the National Zakat Foundation (UK) and a specialist in Ḥanafī legal theory — re-examines zakat not as a mere annual duty, but as a foundational social institution at the heart of Islamic civilization.
​
Drawing on classical fiqh and contemporary realities, Dr. Hanif shows how ṣalāh and zakat, so often paired in the Qur’an, form the twin pillars of a broader “map of Sharia” — a blueprint for building and protecting the ummah.

He explores:

• The localization of zakat and the right of the neighbour
• The ummah as body and building — why local action strengthens global faith
• The balance between public and private wealth, historical collectors, and the ʿushr (border tax)
• Classical categories such as fī sabīlillāh and al-muʾallafatu qulūbuhum in today’s context
• How Muslims can re-center zakat in societies without a unified polity

Dr. Sohail Hanif

Dr. Sohail Hanif is the Chief Executive Officer at the National Zakat Foundation. He works on Islamic legal theory, with a focus on the Ḥanafī school of law. He received an MA and DPhil from the University of Oxford. His doctoral thesis, A Theory of Early Classical Ḥanafism: Legal Epistemology in the Hidāyah of Burhān al-Dīn ‘Alī ibn Abī Bakr al-Marghīnānī (d. 593/1197), studies the interplay of rationality and tradition in a major work of legal commentary. Sohail has also spent over a decade in Jordan, where he studied a full curriculum of Islamic sciences with traditional ‘ulamā’. He was previously the Head of Arabic Sciences at Qasid Arabic Institute in Amman, BA Program Manager and Lecturer at the Cambridge Muslim College, and an instructor in Islamic studies at Qibla Online Academy. Additionally, he has taught undergraduate classes on Modern Islam and Qur’anic studies at the University of Oxford. He has also served as Head of Research and Development at the National Zakat Foundation.