Vice President Ma\'ruf Amin, through an article in Kompas daily, invited Muslims to take up wakaf or waqf (charity endowment) as social and economic capital.
By
KOMPAS EDITOR
·3 minutes read
Vice President Ma\'ruf Amin, through an article in Kompas daily, invited Muslims to take up wakaf or waqf (charity endowment) as social and economic capital.
The Vice President\'s invitation is interesting. This is due to the fact that the role of waqf was very real in the early days of Indonesian independence.
Ma\'ruf believes waqf plays a very large role in supporting development and improving people\'s welfare. The Vice President said waqf can also be in the form of cash, including securities. Therefore, every Muslim can perform waqf according to their capabilities and goals.
Waqf is a form of worship in Islam that teaches generosity. We have Law No. 41/2004 on Waqf and the fatwa of the Indonesian Ulema Council No. 2/2002. The definition of waqf in the law is “the legal act of wakif (the benefactor) to separate and/or hand over part of his property to be utilized forever or for a certain period of time according to its interests for the purposes of worship and/or public welfare in line with sharia". Wakif is a person with waqf.
The potential and utilization of waqf to improve social welfare used to be discussed with a number of stakeholders, including universities and the Indonesian Waqf Board, in 2017. The potential for waqf is very large; in 2017, land and property in the form of waqf in Indonesia was 4.4 billion square meters, equivalent to Rp 370 trillion.
Waqf is a part of the sharia economy that needs to be continuously developed. The utilization of waqf is an innovative way to raise state funds by making use of Indonesia’s advantage as a Muslim majority country and its number is very large population of more than 200 million people. The invitation of Vice President Ma\'ruf Amin can be seen as an invitation to all of us to explore domestic potential in order to make Indonesia a rich country, freeing people from poverty and prosperity inequality.
Waqf can also be an example of Muslim care for fellow citizens, development by us and for us. We cannot rely on other people to improve our society, but we must stand on our own feet.
To help the waqf movement succeed, it is very important to not lose people\'s trust. The community must be able to participate in supervising the collection, distribution and utilization of waqf funds through a transparent and accountable system.