The Operator
The nāẓir (mutawalli) of each Waqf it is appointed to, by tawliya from the Waqif. It administers the Waqf and answers for it: it opens the account, brings the property in, invests it within the policy, records what it earns and pays the beneficiaries. It holds more powers than anyone else on the platform and is, for that reason, the actor most of the controls are pointed at.
How it takes the role
Put forward by somebody who may make appointments, and must accept for itself before anything is conferred. Only the party appointed may answer. Nothing is conferred by being put forward.
Acts at stages 3, 5 and 6, as set out in How it works.
What it can do
| What it lets you do | In use |
|---|---|
| Open the Waqf’s own account, kept separate from the Operator’s. | Yes |
| Put somebody forward for a role over one Waqf. A waqif appoints the nāẓir by tawliya; the nāẓir appoints the rest.reserved to a person, never a systemalso held by waqif, the platform | Yes |
| Administer an individual beneficiary’s entitlement. | Not yet |
| Record that a benefit actually reached somebody. | Not yet |
| Appoint a scholar to the Operator’s Shariah board.reserved to a person, never a system | Yes |
| Check the investments against the policy limits and record any breach. | Yes |
| Open a standing cash waqf to the public to join, citing the opinion of the Operator’s counsel on taking public money, or close it with a reason; and keep the Operator’s collection account.reserved to a person, never a system | Yes |
| Bring a piece of property into the Waqf, and record the six checks it must pass. For property that isn’t money, such as the use of premises or a copyright, record its handover and its registration where one is required. | Yes |
| Enter the holder’s confirmation of what it holds, with the evidence behind it, or the nāẓir’s yearly statement that property which isn’t money is still held. | Yes |
| Authorise a payment to beneficiaries out of income available to distribute. | Yes |
| Record the deed as signed by all parties, and the lease or assignment that gives it effect in law, by each file’s fingerprint. The files stay with the parties.reserved to a person, never a systemalso held by waqif | Yes |
| Record an expense against the Waqf, naming what bears it. | Yes |
| Record a review comparing those fees with the market. | Not yet |
| Set the schedule of fees the Operator charges. | Not yet |
| Say which kinds of waqf the Operator accepts. A waqif drafting under it sees only those, and stopping says why.reserved to a person, never a system | Yes |
| Choose the governance class, or raise it. It can never be lowered.reserved to a person, never a systemalso held by governance council | Yes |
| Raise a matter before the Governance Council, naming the waqf and the reserved decision where it is one, and withdraw it before it is decided.reserved to a person, never a system | Yes |
| Invite somebody to the Operator’s Governance Council, in a named seat. They accept it themselves.reserved to a person, never a systemalso held by governance council | Yes |
| Record a measurement of what the Waqf achieved. | Not yet |
| Record that Corpus has lost value. | Not yet |
| Record income, kept separate from any return of capital. | Yes |
| Set the investment policy the Corpus is managed within, once the Governance Council has approved it. | Yes |
| Propose exchanging one piece of Corpus for another (istibdal). | Not yet |
| Record an entry in the Corpus accounts, and check them against what the holder reports. | Yes |
| Record whether the dedication actually takes effect under the law of the country where it is made, by answering the seven legal questions. | Yes |
| Record the Operator’s own legal rules, for a country or a state within it, the opinions of its counsel they rest on, and where each waqf is. They apply to the Operator’s awqaf alone.reserved to a person, never a system | Yes |
| Record a holding as reported by a custodian or manager.also held by investment manager | Yes |
| Record each contribution paid against a waqif’s declaration from the gateway’s report, refund a payment made in error or twice, and pass contributions on to the waqf’s own account, where they become waqf.reserved to a person, never a system | Yes |
| Give away an amount that must be purified, such as income that is not Shariah compliant, rather than kept. | Not yet |
| Export the Waqf’s portable record, with personal data held back. | Yes |
| Set aside a reserve out of income, or release one. | Yes |
| Keep the Waqf’s list of risks up to date.also held by investment manager | Not yet |
| Refer a waqf to the Shariah board with its facts, or apply a ruling the scholar has let cover later waqfs of the same form.reserved to a person, never a system | Yes |
| Record a valuation, from a source accepted for that kind of asset.also held by investment manager | Yes |
| Move the Waqf to its next stage, once everything that stage requires is in place. | Yes |
9 of these are granted but not yet available on the site, so they confer nothing today. Said here rather than left to be discovered.
What it cannot do, and why
Give the Shariah assurance on a Waqf it administers
Giving an assurance is simply not part of the Operator’s role. An Operator assuring its own compliance is not an assurance, so this is a power that was never granted rather than a rule somebody might waive.
Carry out an exchange of property (istibdal) it has proposed
The Operator may propose an exchange but may not record that it has been carried out. Approving something and doing it are kept apart, so the party who wants a substitution is never the party who records that it happened.
Seat a connected person as an independent member or as its Shariah auditor
Refused before anything is recorded, not seated and disclosed. The seat is a claim of independence, and a connected person has none to claim. Twenty-four months must have passed since the connection ended, counted from when it actually ended, so that simply removing a note does not make somebody independent.
Take a decision on a reserved matter without an independent member voting for it
Fifteen of the sixteen reserved matters require it, and where no independent member is in office all of them are blocked rather than flagged.
Pay itself out of Corpus, or take value into its own account
A Waqf’s accounts are tied to the Waqf that owns them, so value cannot be moved into the Operator’s own. A fee charged to the Corpus rather than to income is refused when somebody tries to record it.
Lower the governance class it is subject to
The platform refuses it automatically, because an agreement to respect one’s own supervision is not a control.
Act before the appointment is accepted
An Operator appointment stays pending until the appointee answers for themselves. Nothing is conferred by being put forward.
Appoint a nāẓir
The waqif appoints the nāẓir by tawliya. As nāẓir, the Operator appoints the rest: the investment manager, the custodian and the accountant, in its own name.
Appoint an investment manager, or set the investment policy, without its council
Handing the management of the Corpus to somebody else, and deciding what it may be invested in, are decisions of the Governance Council. The appointment is refused without the council’s approval of that person, which needs an independent member voting for it, and the policy is refused without the council’s approval of it. Each approval is used once.
How to perform the role
- Answer the tawliya on the Appointments page. Read the terms first: they are what you are agreeing to as nāẓir, and nothing is conferred until you accept by executing the instrument.
- Invite your Governance Council before the first waqf, from the Governance Council page. Each member is sent the invitation by email and accepts it on the site, and an independent member declares their independence first.
- Seat your governing council before you need it. The council sits over you, not over any one Waqf, and it governs every Waqf you administer. Until it has the members its governance class requires, reserved matters over those Awqaf cannot be validly decided.
- Say which forms of waqf you accept, on the Forms we accept page. Until you accept at least one, you are not listed on Draft a waqf. Accepting a form is your decision about what you will administer, not a ruling: a waqf of a form your scholar has not ruled on for later waqfs is still referred to the board.
- Appoint your Shariah scholar on the Shariah board page. They sit for you rather than for one Waqf, and they declare their independence of you before taking the seat. You cannot give the Shariah assurance yourself, so a Waqf you administer shows none on its Passport until your scholar gives one.
- Refer each waqf you are willing to take on to your Shariah board, from its Overview, setting out the facts. Send the deed to the board from the same page, so your scholar can read it in full; only you and the Shariah board can open it. The board rules on the waqf as the waqif drafted it on the platform, and if it changes after the ruling, refer it again before the deed is signed. Your scholar sees only what you refer. Where the scholar has let a ruling cover later waqfs of the same form, apply that ruling instead of referring again. A waqf is not marked permitted in Shariah by any other route.
- Work through the list of gaps on the Waqf’s Overview. It is the whole answer to "why is this not active yet", and each gap links to the screen that closes it.
- Open the account, record custody with the holder’s own evidence, and record whether the Waqf actually takes effect under the law where it is made. A Waqf is declared but not funded until the holder confirms it, and the platform shows the difference rather than treating an intention as an asset.
- Appoint the custodian and the accountant on the Waqf’s People page once you are in office as nāẓir. For an investment manager, first put the appointment to the Governance Council, naming who; once it approves, appoint them under that approval.
- Put the investment policy to the Governance Council, and once it approves, set it on the Money page under that approval, before recording holdings, so that a breach can be checked against something. A new version of the policy goes back to the council.
- Always record income and return of capital separately. Recording a return of capital as income would let a Waqf pay out its own Corpus and report it as earnings.
- Distribute only what is available to distribute, and only with the authority to do it. Every payment asks for a fresh code from your authenticator app, which you set up on Your account.