Muslim Endowments in Asia: Waqf, Charity and Circulations

Waqf is a complex institution which has been employed by Muslims for over 1000 years to sustain various projects, ranging from private homes, cemeteries, libraries, mosques, schools, to agricultural farms, medical dispensaries, hospitals and commercial businesses.

For many Muslims around the world, the term waqf stands for the institution of the pious endowment in and of itself: waqf is a legal institution, wherein a revenue-generating property is donated, with its principal remaining inalienable. Its revenues are disbursed to sustain a pious purpose and in order to seek God’s favor. Waqf is a complex institution which has been employed by Muslims for over 1000 years to sustain various projects, ranging from private homes, cemeteries, libraries, mosques, schools, to agricultural farms, medical dispensaries, hospitals and commercial businesses. Waqf has been shown to be a mobile and flexible institution that has manifested itself in a great many guises and been situated in various historical contexts. It is a living tradition such that studies on waqf could become a lens through which to explore human history and its transformation. At the same time, waqf has also been regarded critically, seen as having created legally inflexible property entities in the past that limit possibilities for societal change in the present, in the name of maintaining waqf endowments in perpetuity. Furthermore, J. Dedieu has argued in favor of an integration of these approaches to the waqf via a comparative perspective on different religious mortmains around the world.

Bibliographic Information

Title: Muslim Endowments in Asia: Waqf, Charity and Circulations

Authors: Amelia Fauzia, Till Mostowlansky and Nurfadzilah Yahaya

Published in: The Muslim World, Volume 108

 Language: English

Length: 6 pages

Muslim Endowments in Asia Waqf, Charity and Circulations