Halal Certification as Sharia Legitimacy for Economic Empowerment of Zakat Mustahiq

Zakat is one of the economic instruments in Islam whose main purpose is the enforcement of economic justice. Zakat during the Covid-19 pandemic is very much needed by the community to overcome economic problems for those affected by Covid-19. This article explores the problems of the fiqh arrangement of zakat distribution for people affected by Covid-19 and the fulfillment of their socioeconomic justice rights through zakat instruments. This article was studied normatively with secondary legal materials using descriptive analysis. The results of the study show that zakat has been used to reduce poverty due to Covid-19. This has become the legitimacy of distributing zakat to communities affected by Covid-19. Based on MUI Fatwa No. 23 of 2020, zakat may be used for community needs due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Communities affected by Covid-19 can be classified as mustahiq faqir because they are victims of natural disasters and social disasters. The distribution and utilization of zakat to the poor affected by Covid-19 is basically the fulfillment of social and economic justice for the community, which is the essence of zakat as an economic instrument for the people.Zakat is an instrument of the Islamic economy and one of its purposes is to improve the welfare of the poor (dhuafa). To empower productive enterprises by mustahiq zakat in the form of goods and services that can be accepted by the community through halal product certification. The problem faced in the field is that the common products of goods and services produced by mustahiq zakat have not been certified halal, so they do not have gained the syar'i legitimacy which has implications for the economic improvement of mustahiq. This study is a normative legal research that emphasizes descriptive secondary data. The results of this study show that halal certification is part of the syar’i legitimacy to provide guarantees to the Muslim consumer. Halal certification of goods and services produced by mustahiq zakat through productive zakat has not been implemented optimally due to low legal awareness of mustahiq regarding halal certification, limited advocacy from zakat management agencies, expensive certification costs, and bureaucratic certification procedures. Keywords: Economic empowerment, halal certification, sharia legitimacy, zakat DOI: 10.7176/JLPG/127-03 Publication date: December 31st 202