Most of the Arabic and Islamic countries have had a long history related to the Islamic waqf, which used to be one of the most important tools of institutionalized sustainable giving that was able to achieve development and to make a real shift in the society at the educational, social and economic levels without relying on governmental or foreign fund. However, the remaining traces of waqf have become distorted as a result to several practices that occurred in the last century. As a result, the culture of waqf almost vanished to the extent that the majority does not have the basic knowledge about waqf.¹ In an attempt to understand the value of waqf and its developmental role, this article tries to give a general overview on waqf by answering basic questions including its meaning, its kinds, its role in development, its history, and its current laws.

Linguistically, the word waqf in Arabic means to withhold the thing. For instance it is said: the house is withheld for the mosque, which means that the revenue of the rent of the house is withheld to spend on the mosque. This means that waqf is withholding one's money or property either in the form of a house or a commercial shop or any other form to spend on whoever needs support like students, orphans, widows, etc….² One of the best definitions of waqf is that "waqf is a financial charitable institution established by withholding one's property to eternally spend its revenue on fulfilling certain needs depending on the choice and conditions made by the 'waqef' or the person who owns the property."³

Although the waqf was not recognized before Islam, after its appearance, the Prophet Mohamed has encouraged it as a kind of a sustainable giving or 'sadaqa jariya' that benefits the poor and the needy in a sustainable way.⁴ One of the Prophet Mohamed's says that encourages 'sadaqa jariya', the waqf included, is "If the son of Adam dies, his work stops except for three; a sadaqa jareya, a useful science, and a good son who prays for him".⁵ The religious origin of waqf in Islam started with a story of the second caliph Omar Ibn el Khattab when he was granted gardens after opening Khaiber and came to the prophet asking him about the best way to make the poor benefit from this land. The prophet Mohamed advised him to eternally withhold the land and spend its revenue on the poor without being subject to be sent, nor donated nor inherited to anybody.⁶ Since this incident, waqf has been spread among Muslims at the time of the prophet and continued after him for long centuries.⁷ It is allowed in Islam to provide the benefit from waqf to non-Muslims like Christians as Safeya, one of the Prophet's wives made a waqf for her Jew brother.⁸

There are three main kinds of waqfs. The first kind is the Khairy Waqf or charitable waqf, which means withholding one's property and directing its revenues towards different philanthropic goals. The second kind of waqf is the Ahli Waqf or the family waqf. It means withholding the property to the benefit of the members of the family like the wife, the children, and the relatives.⁹ Finally, there is the Moshtarak Waqf, or the joint waqf, which is targeting part of the withheld property towards philanthropy and the other part to the family.¹⁰

There are differences between the waqf and the sadaqa that should be highlighted:

1. Sadaqa should go only to the poor and the needy whereas waqf can be directed to both the poor and the rich although the poor has the first priority.
2. Sadaqa could be owned, sent, or granted while the waqf has to be eternally kept without any intervention in its ownership.
3. Sadaqa could be on any useful thing like food or clothes, but waqf is only confined to properties that have revenues and could be sustained and withheld.¹¹

The waqf system had played a vital role in achieving development at the educational, social and economic levels. The educational role of waqf started from the mosque, which was not only a place of praying and worshipping, but was also a source of education where students used to come to learn from instructors specialized in the different branches. Therefore, at the beginning of the Islamic civilization, the mosque used to play the role of the school. However, the form of the educational waqf has evolved to the 'kottab', which was similar to a small school where children are taught reading, writing, Quran, and mathematics. Despite the continuance of the kottab, the educational waqf had developed to normal schools, which had widely increased allover the Islamic society. Meanwhile, schools had direct relations with libraries which people started to put them as waqfs since they were aware of the importance of the book and its role in education.¹²

As for the social development, the social services provided by the waqf system were various. A big number of Muslims withheld their properties to build medical centers and hospitals, some of which were built to cure animals. In fact, many of the waqf documents revealed the successful management of the endowed hospitals.¹³ Besides the medical services, there were several kinds of social services provided by the waqf, including helping the poor do their pilgrimage, helping poor girls get married, building homes for the orphans, the elderly, and the blind.¹⁴

In addition, the waqf system had a significant role in the economic development for several reasons. Firstly, the waqf facilitated renting shops with low prices in the markets that had waqfs, which led to the decrease of prices and, in turn, activated the commercial movement in these markets. Besides, the markets that had no waqfs had to decrease their prices in order to be able to compete with the waqf markets to maintain their businesses. Secondly, the waqf helped the decrease of the unemployment rate and the creation of job opportunities. Besides, the waqf helped the poor to own money which increased the demand rate on numerous products and services that were going to be confined only to the wealthy segments in the society if the waqf did not exist. On the other hand, the sabeel or the water fountain that was built on the important commercial roads had significant roles in activating the trade and in facilitating the movement of the commercial caravans traveling between the cities and the villages.¹⁵

The history of the Islamic waqf goes back to 14 centuries with the appearance of Islam. During these centuries, a large number of Egyptians turned their properties to waqf. This was not only confined to the wealthy segments of the society, but it was also practiced by the middle-income class to the extent that waqf covered more than one-third the agricultural land at the era of Mohamed Ali. The growth of waqf has even continued to reach 770,000 feddans in Egypt in 1925 although it was suffering from some problems, mainly mismanagement. However, after the 1952 revolution and with the adoption of the socialist system, the social and economic development was totally transmitted to the hands of the regime. At that time, the waqf system had completely deteriorated as the ahli waqf was banned while the khairy waqf was put under the control of the government. Since that time, the culture of waqf in the Egyptian society has gradually vanished, and the rate of forming new waqfs became negligible.¹⁶

According to law number 48 for the year 1946, it is necessary for the waqf to be registered, made public and its income would be legal and permissible. The law has allowed for the waqf by a non-Muslim on the condition that it is done through a way approved by the Muslim shari'a or in the non-Muslim law. The law has also conditioned the waqf to be not more than the third of the person's property unless it was permitted by his/her legal heirs.

Currently in Egypt, waqf institutions work under several laws regulating the management and supervision of waqfs. These laws include law 247 for the year 1953, which was updated with law number 28 for the year 1970, law number 272 for the year 1959, law 44 for the year 1962, and law number 80 for the year 1971. These laws regulate all kinds of waqfs, either in the form of real estate or in the form of money put as waqf deposits. According to these laws, The Ministry of Awqaf is the one that has total supervision over all the waqfs. The Minister of Awqaf has the right to freely distribute the endowed money to any direction without being confined to the areas that the original endowers have decided to allocate their money to. In addition, the Ministry of Awqaf is the accounting agency that supervises the administrators of the endowed properties and deposits. These waqf administrators are responsible for presenting regular financial reports that clarify the waqfs' financial status to the Ministry. The Ministry also takes 10% of the revenue of the waqfs in return of reviewing the waqfs' accounts and another 7.5% in return of its supervision over the waqfs' properties. On the other hand, according to law number 264 for the year 1960, the Agent of Orthodox Copts is the one that is entitled to supervise the Christian waqfs and their accounts.¹⁷

As mentioned before, since the mid of the last century, the government had a total control over the waqf properties and banned any participation from the community while it lacked the sufficient experience to efficiently manage the waqf and solve its problems. This tight control had several negative impacts on the waqf system, the most important of which is that the government did not abide by the terms and conditions decided by the endowers to distribute the revenues of their waqfs. This prevented the original beneficiaries for whom the waqfs were founded from receiving their rights. In addition, the wealthy segments in the society were discouraged to develop new waqfs since it became totally managed by the government. This led to the increase of the culture of indifference and helplessness where the citizens felt that it is not their role to make an effort for development and change; it is the government's role. Besides, some people abused the loss of the documents related to waqfs and used illegal means to put their hands on endowed properties and own them. Besides all this, under the government's control, most of the endowed properties became neglected and not invested in the right way, which deteriorated their conditions and diminished their values. Finally, lots of the waqf documents are lost or stolen which led to a serious lack of accurate data and statistics about their size in Egypt.¹⁸

However, despite the deteriorated conditions that face the waqf system in Egypt, there are currently lots of voices that are aware of the significance of waqf and call for reviving and re-organizing it. In fact, reviving the waqf could play a vital role in mobilizing our local resources and achieving development. Therefore, it is necessary to unite and empower all possible efforts that aim at revitalizing the culture of waqf in Egypt and to emphasize on its potential as a financial institution able to achieve sustainable development.