1. Purple Elephants

This five-part narrative series might just change how you think about money, how you spend it, and how money connects us to people we know and people we don’t.

Taqwa Sadiq isn’t an economist or a social sciences expert, she’s just a curious twenty-something with a microphone trying to understand – can Zakat help us solve the cost-of-living crisis?

As a Muslim herself, Zakat is something Taqwa has known about forever. Every year, Muslims all around the world ‘purify’ their wealth by giving away 2.5% of it. This is called Zakat and it’s been happening for centuries.

But why does wealth need to be ‘purified’ in the first place? And what does that have to do with the UK economy?

These questions take us to a library in Cambridge Muslim College, where a religious scholar turned activist, Dr Sohail Hanif, makes a startling revelation. This forces Taqwa to ask – has she and everyone she knows in the UK been doing this sacred act wrong all along?

Also featuring interviews with Helen Rowe, a woman with a plan to eliminate all poverty in Britain in the next five years, and Aziza a junior doctor in the NHS.

Sacred Money takes us all over the globe and even back in time. From hallowed libraries in Cambridge and a mysterious stone in Turkey, to a flooded farm in Pakistan and modern activism in Chicago. Along the way, Taqwa meets young Muslims, doctors and influencers, aunties and uncles, the mandem, a religious scholar, an ex-government official and more. Together they totally change how she thinks about Zakat and money, tradition and identity, and community in the modern world.

Credits

Writer, Producer, and Presenter: Taqwa Sadiq

Supervising Producer: Emily Dicks

Sound Designer: John Wakefield

Theme Music: Mehar Bedi

Editor: Andy Worrell

Commissioning Editor: Khaliq Meer

‘Salam’s Journey’ was produced by International Cartoons and Animation Inc.

‘Friends’ was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions and Warner Bros. Television.