The waqf: the social institution which financed schools and hospitals

There was a time when the hospital, the school, the public fountain or aid to the poorest did not depend exclusively on the State. In a large part of the Muslim world, a discreet but essential institution permeated society: the waqf.

What is a waqf?

The word waqf designates, in Muslim law, an asset that a person decides to allocate sustainably to a religious, social or general interest work. It may be land, a house, a business, an orchard or any other income-producing asset. The principle is simple: the property itself is preserved, while the income it generates serves a specific cause.

A school, a hospital, a mosque, a library, the maintenance of a road, aid to the poor or the reception of travelers could thus be financed for decades, even centuries. The waqf was therefore not only a form of charity. It was a way of organizing long-term solidarity.

When heritage financed society

Over the centuries, the waqf has helped finance an important part of social life in many Muslim societies. Educational establishments could operate thanks to income from businesses or agricultural land. Doctors were paid by foundations. Some hospitals welcomed patients without asking them to pay for their care. Libraries, public baths, fountains and urban infrastructure were also based on this system.

Behind these achievements was a powerful idea: wealth was not found in accumulation alone, but in its ability to become useful to others.

More than a donation: an institution

This is the originality of the waqf. Almsgiving generally responds to an immediate need. It nourishes, heals or relieves at a given moment. The waqf seeks to build something that lasts. A landlord didn’t just give a sum of money. He immobilized part of his assets so that it continually produced resources to serve the community.

The waqf thus created a unique space between political power and private fortune: a space where individuals could transform their heritage into a lasting social institution.

A surprisingly modern idea

This is undoubtedly what makes this institution so contemporary despite its age.

Our societies are today rediscovering, under other names, philanthropic foundations, impact investment, social entrepreneurship or funds dedicated to the general interest. However, long before these concepts became familiar in contemporary economic vocabulary, waqf already posed a fundamental question:

How can we make private property an instrument of collective utility without necessarily entrusting it to the State?

It would obviously be naive to idealize his story. Like any institution, the waqf has experienced its excesses, its rigidities, its diversions and sometimes its confiscation by political powers. But its historical importance remains considerable.

Organizing generosity rather than just giving

And above all, his mind deserves to be questioned again today.

In a Muslim world where needs in terms of education, health, housing, research and social support remain immense, the question is perhaps not only how to give more. It is knowing how to organize generosity sustainably.

Our societies are home to successful entrepreneurs, families with significant wealth, investors and an economically powerful diaspora. Yet how many fortunes are truly transformed into institutions capable of outliving their founders?

Make individual success a collective effort

The waqf recalled precisely this: individual success could become a collective architecture. A building could finance a school for several generations.

Land could support the operation of a hospital. A business could contribute every day to feeding poor families. This institution basically had a particular conception of wealth: owning was not necessarily an end. Heritage could become a tool for transmission, solidarity and collective construction. True wealth then was perhaps not just what one possessed. But what we decided to leave behind.