Waqf
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A waqf (
Terminology
In Sunni jurisprudence, waqf, also spelled wakf (
In older English-language law-related works in the late 19th/early 20th centuries, the word used for waqf was vakouf;[5] the word, also present in such French works, was used during the time of the Ottoman Empire, and is from the Turkish vakıf.[6]
Definition
The term waqf literally means 'confinement and prohibition', or causing a thing to stop or stand still.[7]
Bahaeddin Yediyıldız defines waqf as a system comprising three elements: hayrat, akarat, and waqf. Hayrat, the plural form of hayr, means 'goodnesses' and refers to the motivational factor behind the vakıf organization; akarat refers to corpus and literally means 'real estates,' implying revenue-generating sources such as markets (bedestens, arastas, hans, etc.), land, and baths; and waqf, in its narrow sense, is the institution(s) providing services as committed in the vakıf deed, such as madrasas, public kitchens (imarets), karwansarays, mosques, libraries, etc.[8]
Generally, the waqf must fulfill three primary constraints:[9]
- The one endowing the waqf, and its subsequent maintainers, should sequester the principal and allocate the proceeds to charity.
- The endowment should legally be removed from commodification, such that it is no longer on the market.
- Its sole purpose must be charitable, and the beneficiary group must be named.
Origin in Islamic Texts
Although there is no direct Quranic injunction regarding waqf, their conception in Islamic society has been derived from a number of
In one tradition, it is said that: "Ibn Umar reported, Umar Ibn Al-Khattab got land in Khaybar, so he came to Muhammad and asked him to advise him about it. Muhammad said, 'If you like, make the property inalienable and give the profit from it to charity.' It goes on to say that Umar gave it away as alms, that the land itself would not be sold, inherited, or donated. He gave it away for the poor, the relatives, the slaves, the jihad, the travelers, and the guests. It will not be held against him who administers it if he consumes some of its yield in an appropriate manner or feeds a friend who does not enrich himself by means of it."[10]
In another hadith, Muhammad said, "When a man dies, only three deeds will survive him: continuing alms, profitable knowledge, and a child praying for him."[11][12]
Life cycle
Founding
Islamic law places several legal conditions on the process of establishing a waqf.
Founder
A waqf is a contract; therefore, the founder (called al-wāqif or al-muḥabbis in Arabic) must be capable of entering into a contract. For this, the founder must:
- be an adult
- be sound of mind
- be capable of handling financial affairs
- not be under interdiction for bankruptcy
Although waqf is an Islamic institution, being a Muslim is not required to establish a waqf, and dhimmis may establish a waqf. Finally, if a person is fatally ill, the waqf is subject to the same restrictions as a will in Islam.[13]
Characteristics of al waqf
- The waqf must be established by someone who is legally capable of disposing of their property, which means they must be an adult of sound mind and a responsible person. It cannot be done by a minor, an insane person, or someone lacking legal capacity.
- The person establishing the waqf (the waqif) must designate a specific beneficiary or recipient for the waqf, such as a mosque, a specific individual, or an institution. It cannot be left in his or her discretion.
- The waqf should not be subject to any conditions, hanging or temporary clauses, or be contingent on certain events, like the option to revoke it.
- The waqif (the one establishing the waqf) should not include any conditions that are contrary to the essential conditions, like a condition that allows them to sell or gift the endowed property whenever they wish, or a condition that grants them personal choice or discretion over it.
- The waqf should be of a virtuous and moral nature, reflecting what is ethical and righteous, and it should not support or be associated with corrupt or unethical activities. It should be established with the intention of promoting goodness and benefiting society.
- The property being endowed in the waqf should either be owned by the waqif (the person establishing the waqf) or acquired with the waqif's own funds. It should not involve borrowed money or property that the waqif does not own outright.
Women's contribution to the waqf system
Some of the founders of Ottoman waqfs were women, with their establishments having a crucial impact on their communities' economic life.[14] Out of 30,000 waqf certificates documented by the GDPFA (General Directorate of Pious Foundation in Ankara), over 2,300 of them were registered to institutions that belonged to women. Of the 491 public fountains in Istanbul that were constructed during the Ottoman period and survived until the 1930s, nearly 30% of them were registered under waqfs that belonged to women.[15]
Property
The property (called al-mawqūf or al-muḥabbas) used to found a waqf must be objects of a valid contract. The objects should not themselves be haram (e.g. wine or pork). These objects should not already be in the public domain: public property cannot be used to establish a waqf. The founder cannot also have pledged the property previously to someone else. These conditions are generally true for contracts in Islam.[13]
The property dedicated to waqf is generally immovable, such as an estate. All movable goods can also form waqf, according to most Islamic jurists. The Hanafis, however, also allow most movable goods to be dedicated to a waqf with some restrictions. Some jurists have argued that even gold and silver (or other currency) can be designated as waqf.[13]
Beneficiaries
The beneficiaries of the waqf can be individuals and public utilities. The founder can specify which persons are eligible for benefits (such as the founder's family, the entire community, only the poor, travelers). Public utilities such as mosques, schools, bridges, graveyards, and drinking fountains can be the beneficiaries of a waqf. Modern legislation divides the waqf into "charitable causes," where the beneficiaries are the public or the poor, and "family" waqf, where the founder designates their relatives as beneficiaries. There can also be multiple beneficiaries. For example, the founder may stipulate that half the proceeds go to their family, while the other half goes to the poor.[13]
Valid beneficiaries must satisfy the following conditions:[13]
- They must be identifiable. At least some of the beneficiaries must also exist at the time of the founding of the waqf. The Mālikīs, however, hold that a waqf may exist for some time without beneficiaries, and the proceeds accumulated are given to beneficiaries once they come into existence. An example of a non-existent beneficiary is an unborn child.
- The beneficiaries must not be at war with the Muslims. Scholars stress that non-Muslim citizens of the Islamic state (dhimmi) can definitely be beneficiaries.
- The beneficiaries may not use the waqf for a purpose in contradiction of Islamic principles.
There is dispute over whether the founder themselves can reserve exclusive rights to use waqf. Most scholars agree that once the waqf is founded, it cannot be taken back.
The Ḥanafīs hold that the list of beneficiaries includes a perpetual element; the waqf must specify its beneficiaries in case.[13]
Declaration of founding
The declaration of founding is usually a written document, accompanied by a verbal declaration, though neither are required by most scholars. Whatever the declaration, most scholars (those of the Hanafi, Shafi'i, some of the
Administration
Usually, a waqf has a range of beneficiaries. Thus, the founder makes arrangements beforehand by appointing an administrator (called
The administrator, like other persons of responsibility under Islamic law, must have the capacity to act and contract. In addition, trustworthiness and administrative skills are required. Some scholars require that the administrator of this Islamic religious institution be a Muslim, though the
Extinction
A waqf is intended to be perpetual and last forever. Nevertheless, Islamic law envisages conditions under which the waqf may be terminated:[13]
- If the goods of the waqf are destroyed or damaged. Scholars interpret this as the case where goods are no longer used in the manner intended by the founder. The remains of the goods are to revert to the founder or their heirs. Other scholars, however, hold that all possibilities must be examined to see if the goods of the waqf can be used at all, exhausting all methods of exploitation before termination. Thus, land, according to such jurists, can never become extinguished.
- A waqf can be declared null and void by the ḳāḍī, or religious judge, if its formation includes committing acts otherwise illegal in Islam, or it does not satisfy the conditions of validity, or if it is against the notion of philanthropy. Since waqf is an Islamic institution, it becomes void if the founder converts to another religion.[16]
- According to the Mālikī school of thought, the termination of the waqf may be specified in its founding declaration. As the waqf would expire whenever its termination conditions are fulfilled (e.g., the last beneficiary). The waqf property then reverts to the founder or to their heirs.
History and location
The practices attributed to Muhammad have promoted the institution of waqf from the earliest part of Islamic history.[17]
The two oldest known waqfiya (deed) documents are from the 9th century, while a third one dates from the early 10th century, all three within the Abbasid Period. The oldest dated waqfiya goes back to 876 CE and concerns a multi-volume edition of the Qur'an currently held by the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum in Istanbul.[18] A possibly older waqfiya is a papyrus held by the Louvre Museum in Paris, with no written date but considered to be from the mid-9th century. The next oldest document is a marble tablet whose inscription bears the Islamic date equivalent to 913 CE and states the waqf status of an inn, but is in itself not the original deed; it is held at the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv.[19][self-published source]
Saudi Arabia
The total number of registered endowments in Saudi Arabia is 33,229.[20]
Jerusalem
In the 16th century, the Haseki Sultan Complex charitable complex was founded by the wife of Suleyman the Magnificent and serviced 26 villages; the institution also included shops, a bazaar, two soap plants, 11 flour mills and two bathhouses located in Ottoman Syria (now Palestine, Israel and Lebanon.[9] For several centuries, the income generated by these businesses contributed in the maintenance of a mosque, a soup kitchen, and two traveler and pilgrim inns.[9]
Egypt
The earliest pious foundations in Egypt were charitable gifts, and not in the form of a waqf. The first mosque built by '
India
Early references to waqf in India can be found in the 14th-century work Insha-i-Mahru by Aynul Mulk ibn Mahru. According to the book, Muhammad of Ghor dedicated two villages in favor of a congregational mosque in Multan, and, handed its administration to the Shaykh al-Islām (highest ecclesiastical officer of the Empire). In the coming years, several more waqf were created, as the Delhi Sultanate flourished.[21]
As per the Wakf Act 1954 (later Wakf Act 1995) enacted by the government of India, waqf are categorized as (a) waqf by user such as graveyards, Musafir Khanas (Sarai) and Chowltries etc., (b) waqf under Mashrutul-khidmat (Service Inam) such as
Other
The waqf institutions were not popular in all parts of the Muslim world. In West Africa, very few examples of the institution can be found, and were usually limited to the area around Timbuktu and Djenné in Massina Empire. Instead, Islamic west African societies placed a much greater emphasis on non-permanent acts of charity. According to expert Illife, this can be explained by West Africa's tradition of "personal largesse." The imam would make himself the collector and distributor of charity, thus building his personal prestige.[26][additional citation(s) needed]
According to Hamas, all of historic Palestine is an Islamic waqf.[27] This belief, a relatively recent one, forms part of the group's mythology.[28]
In Southeastern Europe, there are several places in Bosnia and Herzegovina that were originally built under the waqf system, such as Gornji Vakuf, and Donji Vakuf.
Funding of schools and hospitals
After the Islamic waqf law and
From the more peculiar examples of healthcare-related waqfs, in the city of Tripoli, a man had set up a waqf which employed two people who would "walk through the hospitals every day and speak quietly to one another in the patients' hearing, remarking on their improvement and good colour".[31]
Comparisons with trust law
The waqf in
The only significant distinction between the Islamic waqf and English trust was "the express or implied reversion of the waqf to charitable purposes when its specific object has ceased to exist",[35] though this difference only applied to the waqf ahli (Islamic family trust) rather than the waqf khairi (devoted to a charitable purpose from its inception). Another difference was the English vesting of "legal estate" over the trust property in the trustee, though the "trustee was still bound to administer that property for the benefit of the beneficiaries." In this sense, the "role of the English trustee therefore does not differ significantly from that of the mutawalli."[36]
Personal trust law developed in England at the time of the Crusades, during the 12th and 13th centuries. The Court of Chancery, under the principles of equity, enforced the rights of absentee Crusaders who had made temporary assignments of their lands to caretakers. It has been speculated that this development may have been influenced by the waqf institutions in the Middle East.[37][38]
See also
- Jerusalem Islamic Waqf
- Charitable trust
- Islamic economic jurisprudence
- Islamic economics in the world
- Private foundation
- Trust law
- Zakah
- Waqf of Ibshir Mustafa Pasha Complex
- AWQAF Africa
- Haryana Waqf Board (India)
- Ministry of Awqaf (Egypt)
- Ministry of Evkaf (Ottoman Empire)
- Office of the Waqf Administrator (Bangladesh)
References
- ^ "What is Waqf". Awqaf SA. Archived from the original on 10 October 2014. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
- ^ A Survey of Palestine (Prepared in December 1945 and January 1946 for the information of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry), chapter 8, section 1, British Mandate Government of Palestine: Jerusalem 1946, pp. 226–228
- ^ Hisham Yaacob, 2006, Waqf Accounting in Malaysian State Islamic Religious Institutions: The Case of Federal Territory SIRC, unpublished Master dissertation, International Islamic University Malaysia.
- ^ a b c d Peters, R., Abouseif, Doris Behrens, Powers, D.S., Carmona, A., Layish, A., Lambton, Ann K.S., Deguilhem, Randi, McChesney, R.D., Kozlowski, G.C., M.B. Hooker; et al. (2012). "Waḳf". In P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs (ed.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.). Brill.
{{cite encyclopedia}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - U.S. Department of State, dated 26 December 1876 (PDF version)
- Martin Luther University) // Cited: p. 39 (PDF p. 41/338) // "[...]but the term[...]is widely used in the legal literature at that time. The same applies to the term "fonds vakouf (art. 48; "pious foundations", Turkish vakıf), which did not sound exotic either."
- ^ Hassan (1984) as cited in HS Nahar and H Yaacob, 2011, Accountability in the Sacred Context: The case of management, accounting and reporting of a Malaysian cash awqaf institution, Journal of Islamic Accounting and Business Research, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 87–113.
- ^ Halil Deligöz (2014). "The legacy of vakıf institutions and the management of social policy in Turkey". Administrative Culture. Retrieved 15 September 2015.
- ^ a b c d Khan, 2020, "Reviving the Waqf Tradition: Moral Imagination and the Structural Causes of Poverty", [1] Archived 14 August 2020 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Ibn Ḥad̲j̲ar al-ʿAsḳalānī, Bulūg̲h̲ al-Marām, Cairo n.d., no. 784. Quoted in Encyclopaedia of Islam, "Waḳf".
- ^ Ibn Ḥad̲j̲ar al-ʿAsḳalānī, Bulūg̲h̲ al-Marām, Cairo n.d., no. 783. Quoted in Encyclopaedia of Islam, "Waḳf".
- ^ "When someone dies in Islam". Islamic Relief UK. 11 July 2023. Retrieved 28 August 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Waḳf, Encyclopaedia of Islam
- )
- ^ Aydın, M. A. "Osmanlı Toplumunda Kadın ve Tanzimat Sonrası Gelişmeler" (Women in Ottoman Society the Developments after the Tanzimat), Sosyal Hayatta Kadın (The Woman in Social Life), (İstanbul: Ensar Neşriyat, 1996): 144
- JSTOR 23234650.
- ^ Sait, 2006, p.149
- ISBN 9781588345783.
- ]
- ^ "33.2 ألف وقف مسجل في السعودية .. 44 % منها أراض ومزارع". 29 October 2016. Archived from the original on 17 January 2023.
- ^ Ainud Din Mahru (1965). Shaikh Abdur Rashid (ed.). Insha-i Mahru. Lahore. pp. 37–39.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ a b al Wakf Council, India Archived 22 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Subjects allocated Archived 24 September 2010 at the Wayback Machine Ministry of Minority Affairs website.
- ^ Community on the margins[usurped]
- Central Wakf Council, Indiawebsite.
- ^ Feierman, 1998, p. 19
- ^ Max Abrahms, Why Terrorism Does Not Work, International Security, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Fall 2006), pg. 74
- ^ Yitzhak Reiter (2007) '"All of Palestine is holy Muslim Waqf Land": A myth and its roots'. in Law, Custom and Statute in the Muslim World, pp. 173-197. https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789047411307/Bej.9789004154537.i-263_010.xml Archived 1 February 2021 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ "Endowment Charter (Waqfiyya) of Haseki Hürrem Sultan". Discover Islamic Art. Archived from the original on 6 August 2021. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
- ISBN 978-0-415-02063-3.
- ISBN 996085020X.
- ^ (Gaudiosi 1988)
- ^ (Gaudiosi 1988, pp. 1237–40)
- ^ (Gaudiosi 1988, p. 1246)
- ^ (Gaudiosi 1988, pp. 1246–7)
- ^ (Gaudiosi 1988, p. 1247)
- ^ (Hudson 2003, p. 32)
- ^ (Gaudiosi 1988, pp. 1244–5)
Further reading
- Arjomand, Said Amir; Feierman, Steven; Ilchman, Warren Frederick; Katz, Stanley Nider; Queen, Edward L. (1998), Philanthropy in the World's Traditions, ISBN 978-0-253-33392-6
- Gaudiosi, Monica M. (April 1988), "The Influence of the Islamic Law of Waqf on the Development of the Trust in England: The Case of Merton College", S2CID 153149243
- Hudson, A. (2003), Equity and Trusts (3rd ed.), London: Cavendish Publishing, ISBN 978-1-85941-729-4
- Morelon, Régis; Rashed, Roshdi (1996), ISBN 978-0-415-12410-2
- Real property, mortgage and wakf according to Ottoman law, by D. Gatteschi. Pub. Wyman & Sons, 1884.
- Waqf in Central Asia: four hundred years in the history of a Muslim shrine, 1480–1889, by R. D. McChesney. Princeton University Press, 1991. ISBN 069105584X.
- Wakf administration in India: a socio-legal study, by Khalid Rashid. Vikas Pub., 1978. ISBN 0-7069-0690-X.
- ′′Le vakif – un aspect de la structure socio-économique de l'Empire Оttoman (XV-e - XVIII-e s.)′′, by Vera Moutaftchieva. Sofia-Press, 1981
- ′′Inventory of Ottoman Turkish documents about waqf preserved in the Oriental Department at the St. St. Cyril and Methodius National Library. Part 1- Registers′′, by Evgeni Radushev, Svetlana Ivanova, Rumen Kovachev, Rossitsa Gradeva, Vera Mutafchieva. Sofia, IMIR, 2003.
- ′′Agrarian Relations in the Ottoman Empire in the 15th and 16th Centuries′′, by Vera P. Mutafchieva. New York, Columbia Univ. Press (East European monographs; CCLI) 1988. ISBN 0880331488
External links
- [2], Muslim Philanthropy Digital Library, an open-source Library managed by the research program at the John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement at the American University in Cairo
- Islamic Law of waqf according to Five Islamic schools of jurisprudence Archived 4 September 2006 at the Wayback Machine
- Islamic Law According to Five schools of jurisprudence Archived 4 September 2006 at the Wayback Machine
- Islamic law concerning waqf (Public Trust) Archived 4 September 2006 at the Wayback Machine
- Encyclopaedia of the Orient article on waqf
- The Hoda Center in Gainesville, FL is also known (lovingly) as "The Waqf"
- Es Seyyid Osman Hulûsi Efendi Waqf in Darende, in Turkiye.
- Kuwait Awqaf Public Foundation
- Waqfuna موقع " وقفنا "
- Huge properties, little earnings: What ails the Waqf Boards in India?