Waqf Revival: A Policy Perspective

Abstract

Waqf was expressed as charitable instruments, where its profit used to improve the welfare of the society. Indeed, it has been the main source for various public services provided to people and historically it has been a successful mechanism in producing sustainable income to Muslim countries. However, the Muslim world exhibited clear signs of decline; after decades of advancement and prosperity, the causes of decline and the need for reform is an attempt at answering the objectives. This review propagates a historical narrative of waqf, highlighting the details for the decline and the necessity for revival from policy perspective. The purpose is to shed light on some of the key policy reasons as European colonization, weaken Muslims leaders, poor management, insufficient of some workers, lack of trust, lost of some waqf properties as time passes, ambiguity about the size of waqf and location, government intervention, and spreads of moral, financial, and social corruption in some waqf authorities. The paper concludes that waqf revival requires governments who can be transparent in managing the waqf funds, transparency system, reformulation of waqf management policies, amending several other policies related to the establishment, management, and investment of waqf, integrated network of sciences to monitor issues and problems related, establishment of several research centers and academic programs on waqf studies, activate the culture of waqf, extent awareness on the importance of waqf among the nation, giving the freedom to the waqif to manage their respective waqf, and having leaders who are role models in waqf creation.