Zakat serves as a critical instrument of Islamic fiscal policy, with the potential to significantly contribute to poverty alleviation, sustainable development, and social security. Despite its central role in Islamic economic thought, zakat collection in Indonesia remains far below its estimated potential. While previous studies have attributed this shortfall to institutional, legal, and sociological factors, limited attention has been paid to the role of macroeconomic variables in influencing zakat collection. This study aims to empirically examine the relationship between key macroeconomic indicators, GDP growth, inflation, and real effective exchange rate (REER), and zakat collection in Indonesia from 1994 to 2024. Using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach, this study finds no significant long-run relationship between zakat collection and the selected macroeconomic indicators. However, short-run dynamics reveal a marginal adjustment process, indicating a slow and weak responsiveness of zakat collection to macroeconomic fluctuations. These findings suggest that, unlike tax revenue, zakat collection is less influenced by economic performance and more dependent on institutional trust, regulatory clarity, and the governance structure of zakat institutions. The study concludes that enhancing zakat collection in Indonesia requires not only macroeconomic stability but also deep structural and administrative reforms. This includes improving institutional governance and strengthening legal frameworks. Theoretically, the research contributes to the field of Islamic political economy by highlighting the limited applicability of conventional macroeconomic models to explain zakat behavior. It calls for a more integrated framework that incorporates both economic and religious-social dimensions in understanding and optimizing zakat collection.