Chapter in Book

Historically speaking, waqf has played a remarkable role in economic growth and development of Muslim countries. Recently, the call for productive waqf has grown widely and its implementation shows significant impact in various Muslim societies. Interestingly, the revival of idle waqf properties and the creation of cash waqf are becoming economic drivers that will improve the welfare of Muslim societies. It is also surprising to discover the creation of waqf cities in different types such as the Hamdard Waqf City of Health in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, Al-Rahmah Complex City in Somaliland and Darussalam Gontor Smart Waqf City for Education in Indonesia. The main objective of this chapter is to present an overview of the development of Darussalam Gontor Smart Waqf City for Education and to discuss how this waqf city has been able to maintain its financial sustainability without resorting to any external funding since 1750 (starting with Atiq Waqf Mosque) until today. This study is exploratory and adopts qualitative research methodology to achieve the aforementioned objectives. Data are collected from published reports, journals and the relevant web sites. Expected Findings: To conceive the founding Gontor Smart Waqf City for Education as a good model in financing the development of multilevel education infrastructure through decent, high quality and friendly environment. Practical Implications: The study presents a schematic framework for new waqf founders to build new waqf. Social Implications: Waqf is a viable non-governmental source of funding for education.

Over recent years, sustainability has been important topic of interest among researchers and practitioners in finance, evidenced by the remarkable increase in the number of research studies and regulations on the topic (Clark et al., 2015). Initiatives on sustainability include the concepts of Sustainable Investment, Sustainable Responsible Investing (SRI), Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) (Cheng et al., 2014). In addition, several reporting standards have been issued by accounting bodies to facilitate reporting of ESG based activities of firms in their financial reporting.