waqf: a global financial instrument

The article investigates waqf as a classical Islamic institution that has evolved from a charitable endowment into a versatile contemporary legal and financial tool. It first reconstructs the terminological, historical, and structural features of waqf, clarifying its links with inheritance law, its main types (charitable, family, and mixed), and the roles of actors such as the waqif and the mutawalli. The analysis then adopts a comparative-law perspective to explore the relationship between waqf and the common law trust. It examines both functional and structural analogies – notably asset segregation, perpetuity, and the pursuit of public benefit – and reports on scholarly debates about possible historical connections between the two devices, while refraining from any deterministic genealogy. These similarities help explain the contemporary mobility and partial interchangeability of waqf and trust, as demonstrated by the growing reliance on trust instruments in jurisdictions where waqf regulation applies, including dynamic commercial environments such as Dubai. The core of the contribution focuses on India as a legal “laboratory” where common law, Islamic law, and Hindu law intersect. The article traces the historical development of waqf in the subcontinent, from its medieval implantation and colonial reconfiguration to the present framework shaped by the Waqf Act 1995, the Income Tax Act 1961 and the recent Waqf (Amendment) Act 2025. Attention is paid to governance arrangements (Waqf Boards and related institutions), fiscal treatment, and ongoing constitutional challenges to the 2025 reform. By combining historical and functional comparisons, the article demonstrates how waqf operates today as a complex, contested, yet promising instrument of ethical and sustainable finance, capable of supporting social welfare and poverty reduction while raising delicate questions about religious autonomy, minority protection, and the balance between state control and community self-government.