Frequently asked questions
What this platform is, what it will not claim, and what it takes to make or administer a waqf in practice.
About this platform
Can I make a real waqf here today?
You can draft one, and drafting is real: it is written into the register as a waqf that has not yet taken effect. A waqf takes effect when its deed says, on signing or on delivery or registration, and every waqf whose deed has been signed here is listed under Passports.
Do I need an account?
Not to read: the forms, the rulings behind them and the sources those rest on are all open. An account is needed to draft a waqf, because drafting writes a record and a record has an author. An account never carries authority: a role over a waqf is given by appointment, and an institution becomes an Operator by asking and being approved.
What does it cost?
Nothing to read or to draft. What an institution charges to administer a waqf is a matter between it and the waqif, and where this platform records fees, it records them against the corpus so they can be seen rather than inferred.
Is a ruling here a fatwa for me, and what about the law of my country?
No ruling here is a fatwa addressed to you, and no country’s law is active on the platform yet. Governance explains what a ruling here is, how the Shariah and a country’s law relate and what must happen before a waqf is final.
Making a waqf
I want to make a waqf. Where do I start?
Decide what you are giving and what it is for, then see which form fits and what its ruling requires; How it works sets out the six stages, and where a form follows a minority view, Governance explains why it is offered. The step no software can do for you is finding an institution to administer it: someone has to hold the property, account for it, apply the income to your purpose and answer for all of it.
What should I ask an organisation offering to administer my waqf?
Who their Shariah scholar is and whether that scholar is independent of them. How they account for what they hold, and to whom. What becomes of your waqf if the organisation itself ceases: an institution that cannot answer that has not thought about the timescale a waqf works on.
For Waqf Operators
How does an institution become an Operator on this platform?
By asking on this site and being approved. The platform records facts about a body that already exists, its legal form and where and when it was constituted, so software cannot bring the institution into being. Waqf Operators sets out what an Operator needs first and how to request access.
Can we use this for awqaf we already administer?
That is the intended use, and the harder case: existing awqaf arrive with histories the record has to accommodate honestly rather than tidy away. It is worth a conversation before any data moves, so write to us.
Privacy
What do you hold about me?
If you have not signed in, nothing. If you are a member, the service that signs you in holds your email address and this platform records that you joined, and whether you signed up or were invited. Community records are kept apart from the record of the awqaf themselves, which is permanent by design and which a member is not in.
Can I be forgotten?
As a community member, yes, and the separation above is what makes that possible. A person named in the record of a waqf is a different matter: that record is evidence of what was done with somebody’s property, and it is not ours to erase.
Something not answered here
Ask us on the Contact page.