Praise to Allah, I’ve presented my paper at the “International Conference on Waqf Laws & Management – Reality and Prospects” last Tuesday, 20th October, 2009. I was the 2nd presenter in the afternoon session on that first day of the conference. This was my very first time presenting at a conference, and an international one for that matter. So, I was very nervous the day before and in the morning, but again.. alhamdulillah, when my time came to go to the podium, I was less nervous although I was a bit intimidated with the presence of all the distinguished scholars and experts on waqf. I couldn’t recall if Dr. Monzer Kahf was around when I presented but he’s one of the keynote speakers in this conference.
There were no questions from the participants but I did receive 2 comments which I really appreciate and would use those feedback to improvise my final research paper. Anyway, after the 3-day conference (I had to skip the first half of the 2nd day, which I was later told that Dr. Monzer’s keynote speech was very good), I began to realize that this issue on waqf is not something small and petty like what most of us think it is. Waqf is a vital tool for us to uplift the economic and the social conditions of the societies, especially the Muslims. Unfortunately, today most of us only see waqf as a charitable act for religious purposes only. What we do not realize is that the waqf institution has the potential to generate billions of dollars in income, which would definitely help many nations get out of poverty. And interestingly, which not many realize it, waqf can also benefit the non-Muslims, i.e. the non-Muslims can also be the beneficiaries of waqf. Isn’t Islam beautiful?
There are many many issues surrounding waqf such as lack of public understanding and awareness, mismanagement, accounting, legal, etc. When the conference ended yesterday, I’m even more determined to go further into waqf. Most probably, IF I do proceed with my PhD, my research would also focus on waqf. And I look forward to participate in more waqf conferences in the future. I am so thankful that my supervisor managed to convince me to participate in this conference. It has opened up my eyes and I hope I’ll be able to contribute more in this area, insyaAllah.
You may be interested in my English translation of Al-Khassaf, Akham al-Waquf published by Xlibris and available on Amazon.com, etc.
Thank you for your feedback Prof. Appreciate it very much.
Sounds like you had a great time there. I don’t know much about money-related stuff, but I do agree that there’s lotsa mismanagement of waqf in Malaysia. And I’m sure if things were managed properly, a lot of good would come out of it for the ummah.
Yup… betul tu, Uti. Unfortunately, bab2 wakaf ni tak menarik minat ramai orang. Sebab tu mismanagement persists. So, majlis agama di setiap negeri plus Jabatan Wakaf, Zakat & Haji (JAWHAR) must play an active role in, first, educating the public on waqf. =)