Waqf Operators
A waqf is made by a person and kept by an Operator: the institution that holds and administers it. Waqf.Finance keeps that institution’s record of who may act for it, what each person may do, and the corpus and its income, in a form a regulator or a founder’s descendant can read without having been there.
What the platform holds, and what it does not
It holds the record. It does not hold your property or take custody of anything, and it does not rule on whether an arrangement is sound: those remain with the institution and the scholars it appoints.
Nor does it let the record say more than the facts support. A waqf declared but not funded is shown as exactly that, and a ruling that names nobody cannot be recorded at all.
Authority is recorded, not assumed
Every act is checked against the person’s mandate at the moment it is attempted and recorded against their name, so an institution can say years later who decided what, and on whose authority.
What an Operator needs first
A legal form that can hold property on trust where it operates, and whatever registration the law of that place requires of a waqf.
A Shariah board with at least one scholar independent of the institution, who declares that independence before taking the seat. A ruling from somebody the institution employs is worth less than it appears, and the platform records who ruled so that the question can be asked.
Named people to hold the mandates, each saying which decisions are theirs. Authority belongs to people and never to an organisation in the abstract, so an Operator with no named officers has nobody who can act.
What every Operator decides
These are the same in every country. A waqif is shown only what their Operator has accepted, so widening any of them widens what you can offer.
Which forms to accept
Perpetual waqf of cash, of land and buildings, or of shares and sukuk; waqf for a term; family, charitable and joint waqf; and waqf of intellectual property, of the use of an asset for a term, by will, or suspended on a condition. Each carries a ruling with its sources, and accepting one is a deliberate decision taken on that ruling.
Which property to admit
Cash, listed shares, sukuk, Shariah-compliant fund units and private company interests; land, buildings, farm assets, gold and precious metals; patents, trademarks, copyright, software, databases, contractual rights and defined service capacity; and tokenised real-world and blockchain-native assets. Each kind of asset carries its own eligibility tests.
Whom to appoint
For each waqf, an investment manager who directs but never holds, a custodian recorded without needing an account, and an accountant. The Shariah scholar on your board must be independent of you, and a connected person is refused the seat outright.
How much governance to carry
Four classes, from a single member to a five-member body with two independent members and standing committees. A waqif sets the minimum and you may raise it, but nobody may lower it, because the party being governed must not be able to reduce its own supervision.
What to assure and publish
Governance, Shariah, financial and impact assurances, each with a named giver and a date it expires. A passport shows what is current and what has lapsed, rather than letting the last statement stand.
How access begins
Ask on this site. You confirm your email address with a code, which needs no password, and then tell us about the institution: its legal form and registration, where it operates, who would hold the mandates, and the Shariah scholar you propose.
We review every request and answer on your Account page; the answer is not emailed, so look there. A request gives no authority: an institution becomes an Operator only when it is approved and set up on the platform.
The six stages a waqf passes through are set out in How it works, and what every ruling rests on in Governance.