As the third pillar of Islam, zakat has a 1,400-year-old history in reducing inequality and redistributing wealth to at least, the deserving Qur'anic recipients (Al Qur'an, 9:60). Understood as an obligatory command, zakat appears no less than 58 times in the primary source of Islamic law, 26 times along with prayer, for instance: "So establish Salat and give Zakat, and hold fast to Allah" (Al-Qur'an 22:78). All Muslims who meet a minimum threshold of zakatable assets (nisab) are required to pay zakat annually. The oft-repeated conundrum however, is if the Zakat institution was so deeply entrenched in the Islamic law, why then do so many continue to suffer from poverty and malnutrition in even Muslim majority nations? According to a report by Pew Research Centre (2011), Muslim-majority countries are amongst the poorest in the world, with a median GDP per capita (after adjusting for purchasing power parity) of just $1,200 in sub-Saharan Africa, compared to more developed countries at $33,700 per capita.
Waqf (plural awqaf) is a continuous charitable endowment given away for the goodwill. Once created, it must stay permanently to finance different needs for the next generation. Waqf can be defined as "the confinement of a property (movable or immovable) by a founder(s) and the dedication of its usufruct in perpetuity for the wellbeing of societies for generations to come". The inherent perpetuity of waqf gives its flexibility to accommodate the arising needs of Muslim societies throughout centuries. As such, it is seen as an institution with an immense potential for economic and social reform (MIFC, 2015).
