Waqf

Abstract

Modern Islamic Finance and Banking is competing with the conventional banking on many levels. There are tensions between the definitions of ‘Riba ' and ‘Hiyal' that continuously stress the need for Islamic Sharia Boards to update the Sharia Compliance for their products. The concept of ‘Waqf' is the Islamic concept of an endowment Trust. The pious aim of the Waqf is to allow endowment for a specific purpose that must be ‘Halal'. The leading Islamic countries for the purposes of having vibrant Islamic Finance and Banking economies are predominantly past British colonies. These Islamic countries have rich Common Law heritage that guides their Constitutions as they exist today. The Common Law guidelines for Family Law, Inheritance, and Property Law also influence the Sharia compliance framework for contemporary Islamic Finance in those countries. This chapter examines the existing Islamic jurisprudence on Waqf and its influence on Common Law trust, and argues for its revival as the Islamic Trust Law.