Traditional Islamic waqf (endowment) principles are being adapted with modern technology to provide communal assistance for end-of-life expenses and other charitable purposes, reports Sharene Lee in Salaam Gateway (July 14). Historically, waqf institutions played a crucial role in Islamic societies, funding much of the educational, healthcare, and social infrastructure—including funeral arrangements. The article explores the modern revival of waqf through digital platforms and mutual protection models, such as online micro-endowments and tabarru-based funds, which pool contributions for communal support. (Tabarru refers to voluntary, charitable donations, but the term is used today in Islamic insurance and finance for contributions to a common fund that helps members in need.) They are not necessarily all waqf in name, but reflect the same principles confronted with new situations. Lee writes that today, with families living far apart, “support networks are usually non-existent or stretched past their breaking point. What was once instinctive must now be rebuilt with intent and new tools.”
Initiatives include platforms like Waqf World in Indonesia and a national platform by Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Awqaf, focusing on education, housing, and funeral care. Funds relying on voluntary contributions for mutual support are to be found in Islamic cooperatives in Malaysia and Indonesia, and blockchain experiments in Turkey. The LifeDAO (TLD), with offices in the United States and Singapore, launched a Life Protection Benefit—a global mutual fund aligned with waqf principles—to support members’ loved ones upon death. Mutual protection models are quietly gaining ground and may open a way to re-normalize communal responsibility through “building systems that are borderless but grounded, digital but human, accessible yet intentional.”
(Salaam Gateway, https://salaamgateway.com/story/a-modern-revival-of-waqf-for-funeral-support)
