Revitalization of Islamic Trust Institutions through Corporate Waqf

Dahlia Binti Ibrahim
Email: dhuz510123@gmail.com

1. Introduction

The western countries have prided themselves on their ability to create wealth and modernization through the capitalist system. But since the break out of the economic crises in 2008, most of the western leaders started to turn to Islamic way in developing the economy. To avoid more unexpected problems arising from the capitalist system, it is imperative for everyone to come up with new ideas to recapture the once glorious world economy. Man (2011) stated that one of the methods now being aggressively debated is benevolence system through charity.

Charity is not new to many people. It is the act of virtue in Islam as mentioned in Quran. Charity plays a major role in improving spiritual, social economy and justice (Man, 2011; Mawdudi, 1948). The core importance of charity is to portray kindness and good act. In fact, all Muslims are expected to help each other in whatever circumstances. The act of charity includes not only giving away energy and knowledge but also in sharing their wealth with the unfortunate ones. This giving culture is not to gain recognition from the society, it is more to get blessing from Allah s.w.t. Allah mentioned that He is the creator of all things and as such all things belong to him; as He is the most knowledgeable (Sura: Al-Baqarah, Verse: 29). There are many instruments in assisting the Muslims to perform philanthropy gestures such as zakat, hibah and sadaqah. But the one recently gain popularity among practitioners, fiqh scholars and academician is waqf.

Waqf is not compulsory practice to Muslims. It is performed to seek Allah’s blessing and a mechanism of wealth sharing. Most importantly, waqf is in existence to improve the wellbeing of the ummah. As such, waqf can be a tool to develop