waqf, society, Hanafi, rulings on endowments

Abstract

This study aimed to elucidate the significance of the waqf, which, since the dawn of the noble Islamic era, had constituted a fundamental pillar in the establishment of a cohesive Muslim society. The research adopted an inductive and analytical methodology.

The principal findings indicated that the Hanafi jurists were the first to codify the rules of waqf sequentially and systematically during the third century AH, through numerous treatises collected under the unified title “Aḥkām al-Awqāf” (Rulings on Endowments). The most prominent among these were the books of Aḥkām al-Awqāf by al-Khaṣṣāf and Aḥkām al-Awqāf by Hilāl ibn Yaḥyā. These two seminal works formed a cornerstone in the jurisprudential treatment of waqf. Consequently, Burhān al-Dīn al-Ṭarābulusī, a scholar of the tenth century AH, brought these works to prominence by integrating them into a single volume, which he entitled Al-Isʿāf fī Aḥkām al-Awqāf, thereby producing a scholarly beacon and an authoritative reference in the field of endowments law.

The study recommended renewed emphasis on waqf in Islam as a foundation of societal security that had been neglected. It further urged its revival in the hearts of Muslims, both as an act of devotion to Allah and as a means to achieve social solidarity, thereby uniting the benefits of this world with those of the Hereafter.