Waqf (Sadaqah Jariyah)

Waqf is one of the holy Islamic teaching, it is referred to as sadaqah jariyah, derived from Prophet s.a.w saying: When someone passes away, he is cut off from him his ‘amal (well doing) except three things; sadaqah jariyah, useful knowledge, righteous children who pray for him. Narrated by Abu Dawood: 2494

In English waqf is called a voluntary charitable endowment. 

As compared to other forms of sadaqah waqf has its own uniqueness. Sadaqah in general is giving wealth and its benefit to someone/people as beneficiaries. Only after the wealth has been gifted to the beneficiaries, the giver gets his reward.

On the other hand, if waqf is given to someone specifically, only he/she benefits, not the object. Once the wealth is given away as waqf, its object is perceived as Allah’s belongings until the judgment day. Therefore, the giver always gets his reward as long as the object of waqf still exist and can be utilized.

To understand simply, there is a simple illustration about comparation between ordinary sadaqah and waqf or sadaqah jariyah:

Ordinary Sadaqah

Someone donating $100 from his pocket money to a poor person. He gets his reward from his well doing, only at that specific time.

Waqf

Someone doing the same thing, but he donates $100 from his pocket money for the development of educational institution or for buying the asset of the institution. As long the institution exists and is being utilized, the giver shall reap his rewards, even after he passes away. As we can see waqf from sahabah (companions) of our beloved Prophet s.a.w, especially waqf from sayyidina Uthman bin ‘Affan still exist until today.

The waqf concept adopted by Western institutions, one of them being Harvard University in USA. Today the institution is the richest university in the world as proved by its endowment asset value, $40 billion. This stays true to its credentials as that is the value when this article was being written at that point of time.

Who knows, one day in the future, we might have an Islamic educational institution commensurate with Harvard for its educational quality and endowment value. One can only hope.