✍Dr. Shujaat Ali Qadri
Handling waqf has been a hallmark of managing administrations and bedrock of urban planning and public welfare in states governed by Muslims since ancient times. The Turkish Ottoman Empire was a torch-bearer in maintaining and using waqf assets in statecraft; Mughals followed suit; and amid the strong wave of Colonialism, the waqf thrived and survived even in distant lands of Europe and America.
The institution of waqf continues to serve its purpose robustly, with a galore of irregularities though. In India, the waqf, managed through various government-assisted boards, is the third largest property owner. It is however in the eye of a storm, with the Union government seeking to alter laws that administer waqf. It has spurned the Muslim community that feels that it is being fleeced of its heritage as well as history.
So, what is the institution of waqf in reality? How has it been helping the Muslim community or does it really do so? Let’s understand this.
Waqf, a charity in continuity
Waqf refers to properties dedicated exclusively for religious or charitable purposes under Islamic law, and any other use or sale of the property is prohibited. Such properties are considered detained by Allah and their use for the charitable or welfare objectives have to be maintained till eternity. Once a property is declared waqf, it remains so forever. As waqf properties are bestowed upon Allah, in the absence of a physically tangible entity, a ‘mutawalli’ (caretaker) is appointed by the waqif (one who donates waqf), or by a competent authority (the government), to manage or administer a waqf.
The practice of the waqf started during the lifetime of the Prophet when people started devoting their lands and properties for the welfare of the masses. Experiments in practicing productive waqf have come to some basic principles that exist in Islamic waqf system, since the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) advised Umar bin al-Khattab (RA) to give his land in Khaibar for the poor, as he said to Umar, “If you will, then bear the capital and donate it to the poor.” (Al-Bukhari, 2001: 2737; Muslim, 2000: 1632)
It led to public endowments that streamlined the economy by ensuring that there would be a continuous fiscal fulcrum for the poor. It was a bulwark against the monopoly of the power and business elite in deciding the state policies for the public.
Notably, the humanitarian purpose of the waqf is not limited to Muslims. It has to serve all and sundry in a state and historically the waqf has served as an emergency assistance to help catastrophe-hit people so that there is no tragedy in its aftermath.
Waqf performs charitable works to help the vulnerable, the oppressed, and even animals.
Most importantly, the waqf helped build educational, intellectual and public use buildings. A number of institutions in the Ottoman — 40,000 of them surviving even today — were built for the promotion of scholarship. Al Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, is one classical signature of waqf contribution. Similarly, sarais (free shelter houses) were built to help travellers and traders. In India, we see them in the form of musafir khanas (rest houses for travelers) in every big and small city.
Sufi orders played a pivotal role in expansion of the waqf and that’s why we see their hospices or khanqahs in almost every part of the world where Sufism made its presence.
Now out of use but once lifelines for the people, the wells or bawdis have also been built as someone wished to provide water to the thirsty. Similarly, orphanages, majority of them, run on waqf properties. Graveyards are mostly waqf lands in every village, town or city.
Same is the case of mosques that stand from mashriq to maghrib, in thousands of numbers, as houses of Allah, owned by Allah. They too used to serve as centres of learning, and some of them still do.
An ancient and abiding welfare institution
Not all schools of Islamic jurisprudence recognise the institution of waqf or the irrevocability of a charity for an entire span on earth. But Ottomans, Mughals, Delhi Sultans, Persian monarchs – all prominent powers of the medieval period – followed the waqf model of general prosperity of common folks, especially to ensure that the downtrodden are guaranteed basic necessities of life.
The waqf model worked so efficiently that historians have not recorded calamities like droughts, famines and floods leading to starvations in the lands where the waqf was implemented.
The Turkish waqfs have been used for scholarships and made outstanding achievements from time to time. Prof Bahaeddin Yediyıldız of Hacettepe University, Ankara, notes in his writing that the function of the waqf in Turkey has been like that of Renaissance. As the Renaissance was a result of returning to sources in a search for a balance in cultures, balance between past and present, between nature and divine values in determining human behaviour… similarly, the waqf has served to assist humanity and at the same time keeping the people, especially modern youth , glued to their heritage and religious.
The institutions and infrastructure that emanated from the institution of waqf presented a pristine synthesis of cultures – the Anatolian, Turkish, Greek, European, Russian and all others that the Turks took under their wings.
One more popular and useful public institution established through waqf in the Seljuk and Ottoman rule was lodges of sufi dervishes. Also known as tekkes, these were places where sufis would immerse in ibadaat (prayers) and mentor their dutiful disciples. Sufi lodges influenced public culture and tradition, and helped promote harmony between administrators.
In India, the history of waqf can be traced back to the early days of the Delhi Sultanate when Sultan Muizuddin Sam Ghaor dedicated two villages in favour of the Jama Masjid of Multan and handed its administration to Shaikhul Islam. As the Delhi Sultanate and later Muslim dynasties like Mughals flourished in India, the number of waqf properties kept increasing in India.
When the Mughal rule ended and the British Raj sought to abolish the waqf after a Privy Council of London ruling, its own officers in India opposed it as it was serving the public well. So, the British-promulgated Mussalman Waqf Validating Act of 1913 saved the institution of waqf in India.
Waqf in India: Management, malady and remedy
India has the largest waqf holding in the world. Waqf in India operates through 32 waqf boards and currently controls 8.7 lakh properties spanning 9.4 lakh acres across India with an estimated value of 1.2 lakh crores. It thus makes waqf the largest landlord in the country after the Armed Forces and the Indian Railways.
But despite such a huge capital, the waqf in India is a poor institution, in every sense. Members of its boards are elected or selected arbitrarily, most at the behest of the ruling party in the state or Centre. Almost all state boards are deeply mired in corruption and inaction. Prime properties have been sold for peanuts because of the nexus of board members, mafias and government officials (often CEOs).
There are hundreds of properties in Old Delhi and elsewhere, whose rents are even below Rs 100 despite the fact that they are located in prime commercial areas where prevailing rent pricing is in lakhs of rupees. Dargahs and mosques under the board, including Jama Masjid of Delhi, are not under waqf control and the caretaker or the imam rules like a feudal lord.
The boards do provide succor to orphans, widows, imams and needy out of the income they generate from the waqf properties. But these stipends are so meager that many of them who are entitled don’t even come to collect them.
Moreover, many of the waqf properties are being used or claimed by those religious circles who don’t even believe in the institution of the waqf from a theological point of view. The spirit of waqf, rooted in charity and seeking virtue after death, is primarily upheld by Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (Sufi, Barelvi, Dargahi Muslims) and Shia communities. Other Islamic sects in India do not recognise the spiritual merit derived from charity after death. Thus, waqf properties predominantly belong to Sufi, Barelvi, or Shia communities. In short, the whole management of the waqf is a sordid saga. This is where the Central government is supposed to step in: to help restore the proper functioning of the waqf so that its desired objective of public welfare could be fulfilled.
New Amendment
The Union government has brought a Bill titled the New Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024 with a stated intention to abolish anomalies in the working of the waqf boards and revive rightful utilisation of the waqf properties. Much has been written about Muslims’ objections to the draft of the Bill and the possibilities that it might give birth to. The Bill was sent to the Joint Parliamentary Committee and it has held discussions with a number of stakeholders to suggest final amendments to the Bill.
While there is suspense over the new form of the Bill, any responsible citizen of India and welfare-loving Muslim will hope that the government will come out with a formula that would truly restore welfare that is the only objective of the waqf. Governance is the sole privilege of the government and it may appoint a person of any religion to the board of the waqf and may even channelise the board’s functioning through any of its concerned officials, it should not matter. What will matter is that the orphans, widows and other needy are deprived of their due for which people allotted their properties.
Protest of Muslim Organisations
Jamiat Ulema e Hind, a premier organisation of Deobandi theological leaning, and Jamat E Islami has been at the forefront of advocacy against the new waqf bill and preservation of the waqf properties. Their evil grip on waqf must be loosened to restore welfare of the poor for whom the waqf is ultimately meant for. Besides, as said earlier, the waqf is a matter of faith and practice for the Sufi, Barelwi and Shia Muslims. They have maintained syncretic traditions of India and the shrines maintained by them have been benefactors of all, especially the poor, irrespective of any creed, and thus the waqf must be restored to these true guardians of India’s syncretic values and patrons of the poor.
