Introducing Sacred Money

This 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.

In this five-part narrative series, Taqwa Sadiq explores whether Zakat, an Islamic tradition, can help solve the UK cost-of-living crisis.

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 over a thousand years. We don’t know the exact amount but estimates for how much Zakat is collected range from 200 billion to 1 trillion USD worldwide each year. It’s a big deal.

But why does wealth need to be ‘purified’ in the first place?

And what does this ancient, spiritual tradition have to do with the cost-of-living crisis?

Taqwa isn’t an economist or an expert, she’s just a twenty-something with a microphone. Her search to answer these questions take 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. Their stories open up questions around identity and belonging, get to the heart of what it means to be a British Muslim, and explore what happens when ancient traditions are transported to new places and times.

Featuring interviews with Ali_Official, Mariah Idrissi, Sohail Hanif (National Zakat Foundation), Yasrab Shah (Muslim Hands), Helen Rowe (Author, Eliminating Poverty in Britain), Nabil al-Kinani (Privatise the Mandem), Dallas Wright (Believers Bail Out) and more.

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

Archive sound from the cartoon 'Salam's Journey', produced by International Cartoons and Animation Inc.

Sacred Money is a BBC Audio Production for BBC Sounds Audio Lab.