<![CDATA[This study seeks to fill a gap in the literature, which has been overly focused on the dichotomy between Islamic law and the state, by offering a new perspective: zakat as a space for convergence and a social laboratory for the creation of inclusive, responsive, and adaptive governance in response to the complexities of Muslim societies in Indonesia and Malaysia. This study employs an exploratory-descriptive qualitative approach, focusing its analysis on legal documents, regulations, religious fatwas, and academic literature discussing zakat management in Indonesia and Malaysia. The results confirm that the convergence of Islamic law and customary law in zakat management in Indonesia and Malaysia is essentially a space for the search for meaning of justice that is never final, where the state, society, and religious authorities continuously negotiate the boundaries of universality and locality in the distribution of welfare for the people. In the dialectic between the egalitarian principles of Sharia and the nuanced kinship practices of customary law, zakat emerges as a social laboratory that tests the legitimacy, inclusiveness, and vitality of the legal system itself. The effectiveness and transparency of zakat governance are not solely determined by the state's courage to innovate or the sophistication of regulations, but by the success of all actors in fostering critical, reflective dialogue, providing genuine space for local community participation, and positioning zakat as an instrument of social liberation that challenges the status quo and opens new pathways to substantive justice.]]>
