The Waqif
The person or institution making the endowment. Everything on this platform exists because a Waqif decided to dedicate something to a cause: an asset given permanently, or the use of an asset for a fixed term. The Waqif is the only actor whose act cannot be delegated, corrected or performed on their behalf.
How it takes the role
No appointment. You become a Waqif by declaring a Waqf. That needs an account, because what it produces is a record with an author. There is no invitation to wait for.
Acts at stages 1 and 4, as set out in How it works.
What it can do
| What it lets you do | In use |
|---|---|
| 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 operator, the platform | 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 operator | Yes |
| Record that the Waqf runs for a term, and where what was given goes when it ends. | Yes |
| Open a draft: what is being given, in what form, for how long. | Yes |
| Sign the deed. The waqf takes effect when the deed says: on signing, or on delivery or registration. | Yes |
| Join a standing cash waqf the Operator has opened to the public, declaring before paying what one gives as waqf. | Yes |
| Add the purposes, who benefits, and the Waqif’s conditions to a draft. | Yes |
What it cannot do, and why
Name their own Operator, custodian or auditor in the deed as a binding condition
A permanent Waqf that names a specific bank breaks the day that bank merges or leaves the market. So a Waqif sets requirements, not names: "held with a licensed Islamic custodian in this country" still binds in fifty years. Each requirement is recorded along with whether the platform can check it and whether it may ever be changed.
Take back what was given before its time, or move it to another Waqf
Two Awqaf are two separate estates with two sets of beneficiaries, so the platform refuses a transfer between them: moving property from one to the other takes it from one set and gives it to the other. In a Waqf for a term, what was given comes back when the term ends, and not before.
Lower the governance class once chosen
Supervision only ever increases. The Waqif sets the minimum and the Operator may raise it; nobody may reduce the supervision a Waqf is under.
Undo the waqf once it has taken effect
A waqf takes effect when its deed says: on signing, or on delivery or registration. Before you sign, you may withdraw and the draft simply ends. Once it has taken effect there is no way back, because what you gave is no longer yours to recall.
How to perform the role
- Draft on the Draft a waqf page. First choose the Operator who will look after the waqf; you then see only the forms of waqf that Operator accepts, each saying whether its scholar has a ruling that covers it or whether your waqf will be referred to the Shariah board. Say the country the waqf is made in.
- State the purpose precisely. A Waqf that says only "for good causes" leaves whoever runs it in fifty years guessing what was meant, and nothing done later can recover the intention.
- Read the ruling behind the form you choose, under Forms of waqf. Some rest on a minority position, and you are entitled to know that before choosing rather than after.
- Choose a higher governance class if the size of the gift warrants more supervision than the basic class every Waqf starts with. You may only ask for more, never less, so there is no risk in asking for too much.
- Set up an authenticator app on Your account before you sign. Then sign the deed on your waqf’s Deed page, once nothing is outstanding for it and the Shariah board has approved it. If the waqf is changed after the ruling, it goes back to the board before you can sign. Signing asks for a fresh code from the app, and records the fingerprint of the deed as you signed it; the document stays with you. Until you sign, everything recorded is preparation, however carefully it was recorded.
- Appoint the nāẓir, by tawliya, on the Deed tab of your waqf: the Operator you drafted under administers the waqf and answers for it once it accepts by executing the instrument. A waqf may be constituted before a nāẓir is in office. Where the law of the country makes a public body nāẓir of every waqf, as in Malaysia, you do not appoint one.