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dul FitriFestival is only one day ahead, and Muslims who have been fasting for Ramadan are preparing to celebrate. Some may have plans to visit relatives in their hometowns; others may just want to intensify their religious and social activities. But beyond normal social, economic and religious activities during Ramadan there is another important agenda that often characterizes the Muslim religious practice of giving.

Prior to the Idul Fitri festival, especially in the last week of Ramadan, Muslims intensify their giving. According to Islamic teaching, all Muslims who have savings or property are obliged to pay zakat (alms) and strongly encouraged to perform other kinds of giving such as infak and sadaqa.

Those who are wealthy enough often choose Ramadan to share portions of their wealth with the needy. In practice, they may share portions of their wealth with the needy among their relatives in surrounding neighborhoods. Some may prefer to channel their mandatory zakat and voluntary sadaqa or infaq to zakat collectors in either community-based zakat agencies (LAZ) or state-sponsored zakat bodies (BAZ).

When wealthy people share their wealth with those in need, it represents the generosity and altruistic nature of human beings. This may narrow, but does not close the social gap between the haves and the have-nots. We hope not to see a repeat of last year's zakat tragedy in Pasuruan, in East Java, which saw 21 people killed and caused hundreds of people to suffer injuries on Sept. 16, 2008. According to reports, people died and were injured during struggles to receive donations from a local family who wanted to distribute millions of rupiah directly to the poor.

While drawing public attention, the above incident was judged differently to the regular practice of alms giving. Some for example, questioned the meaning of religious charity, the roles of zakat committees, as well as the actual poverty rate in Indonesia.

The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) insisted that this way of distributing aid was haram. Asking the poor to queue in front of the rich to receive zakat is not only humiliating, but is also inappropriate with Islamic traditions. The MUI suggested that zakat funds be channeled and redistributed via zakat committees (*amil).

However, the family in question disagreed with the MUI opinion, arguing that it was their right to share their wealth with the poor without necessarily engaging in *amil. The family even argued that the government should thank them for giving aid to the poor. They said the tragedy was the result of the government's lack of effort to alleviate poverty in this country.

For the past few decades, the practice of giving has intensified in Indonesia, and the amount of money being collected has also increased rapidly. In fact, philanthropic institutions have received significant contributions from both individuals and collectives (corporations).

In a nutshell, Indonesia has witnessed a new development in the practice of giving. While some consider this phenomenon as reflecting a progression in Islamic philanthropic activism, others wonder how far Islamic philanthropy can effectively be materialized in social, economic and cultural domains.

A few weeks ago, following the controversial (albeit brief) Malaysian TV screening of Bali's Pendet dance, Dr. Oman Fathurrahman, the acting director of the Nunsantara Archieve Society (Manassa) wrote an interesting article concerning the disappearance of many Indonesian archives from Indonesia. Many buyers and collectors from other countries had persuaded local people holding rare archives to sell them, he said. At the same time, the government had not paid much attention to this area, overlooking the importance of the archives for academic and cultural purposes. However, Oman thanked several foreign foundations that had financed Indonesian researchers' projects to preserve such archives.

Coinciding with Fathurrahman's concerns, during the Summer School on Islam and Muslim Identity at Universiteit Tilburg in the Netherlands, Khaleed Abou Fadhl, a professor of Islamic Law from the University of California, Los Angeles, raised an intriguing question as to whether Islamic philanthropic associations in Indonesia were willing to support projects for the preservation of Islamic literature and archives. He pointed out that preserving and then studying this kind of literature would help Indonesian Muslims discover their history and "genuine" identity, which is of particular relevance in facing globalization and modernity.

At that time I was reluctant to give him a precise answer. I told him there were a few Muslim philanthropic institutions (but not many) that were aware of this issue. But again, I said, the existing philanthropic institutions obviously gave priority to poverty issues - feeding the poor and providing them with better education. Despite the fact that preserving intellectual and cultural heritage is necessary, poverty issues seemed to be very dominant in this country.

Thus, Muslim philanthropic projects still focus on social activities (charities and income-generating projects) and "conventional" dakwah (proselytizing). Another main reason of course has much to do with Indonesian Muslims' understanding of religious giving, which somehow is detached from the public domain and public interest.

Feeding and helping the needy is a part of Muslims' social and religious obligation. There is nothing wrong with the provision of free public healthcare, income-generating projects, and other charitable work, because these are needed by low-income households whose future in part is still reliant upon the government's direct cash aid program (BLT).

We have also witnessed that many pesantren, Islamic educational institutions and mosques have gained popular support from donors. At the same time, various national and multinational companies have begun channeling their social funds, legitimized under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs, into Muslim philanthropic associations. However, it should be noted that the preservation of Islamic cultural and intellectual heritage, as suggested by Abou Fadhl and Oman Fathurrahman, is also essential.

In this situation, the "ball" thus is in the hands of philanthropic associations and cultural institutions. They have to work hard to convince and communicate with donors. Academic, cultural, esthetical and ethical affairs are just as important as physical and economic matters.

We do imagine that (sooner or later) Muslim philanthropic associations will widen their scope of programs by utilizing not only physical-material and spiritual-mental matters but also ethical-intellectual and esthetical affairs, as discursive centers. For this to happen, an intensive, strategic and enlightening campaign is of course unavoidable because the soul of philanthropic activities is always in the hands of givers and collectors whose decision to give has often been contested with their own moral choice.