Why Contribution Fund?
The Research Institute for Standards in Islam ( RISIS ) has established an Endowment for facilitating for providing scholarships for needy students, bursary, emergency relief missions and building acquisitions.
Waqf (Arabic for endowment) is a special kind of philanthropic deed in perpetuity. It involves donating a fixed asset which can produce a financial return or provide a benefit. Based on several hadiths (accounts of the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him), and with similar elements to practices from pre-Islamic cultures, the specific fully-fledged Islamic legal form of endowment seems to date from the ninth century.
Supported by Islamic waqf law, foundations for learning institutes and hospitals were by the tenth century firmly established throughout the Islamic world. By the next century, many Islamic cities had several waqf-funded hospitals.
The purpose of the RISIS Endowment Fund is to provide financial support for the Institute’s research, teaching, learning infrastucture architechure, scholarship, and other capacity building programs that are not intended to be profit-making.
The revenue or benefit generated then serves specific categories of beneficiaries. Muslims giving waqf typically donate a building, land or cash with no intention of reclaiming the value gained from them. A charitable trust may hold the donated assets. RISIS Endowment Fund can also raise funds by creating a cash-waqf. This means that a loan portfolio – based on Islamic principles – is built from the value of the waqf fund.
The RISIS Endowment Fund holds and invests donations made to the Institute and charitable trusts associated with the Institute, and other long-term capital. The Fund fulfils its purpose by preserving the capital of donations and maximising the income available for distribution.
Accordingly the support for RISIS Endowment is critical to the success and sustainability of the Institute and its ability to contribute to society. Muslims still rarely give large donations of cash-waqf, but the influential World Fiqh Council has recently issued a fatwa (religious ruling) in favour of cash-waqf’s legitimacy