이슬람 신탁 와크프에 관한 연구

A Study on Islamic Trust (Waqf)

This study is about the structure and socio-economic role of Islamic trust, waqf. The primary motivation of establishing waqfs has been to practice philanthropy in Islam. However, analysis has shown that the economic motivations of establishing waqfs are to shelter wealth from arbitrary taxation and confiscation by the rulers, and to circumvent the regulations of Islamic law of inheritance which severely restricts an individual’s testamentary power to one-third of his property and forces the rest two-thirds to be allocated to Islamic community. Beyond doing charitable works, waqfs have played a pivotal role in Islamic economies, providing public goods and even social overhead capital. The problems of waqfs have been the inflexible management and the agency problem of the waqf manager, mutawalli, which has led them to lag behind the times and become corrupt. The failures of correcting the inflexible management and agency problem of waqfs led to the state’s confiscation of its property and the centralization of its revenues in the middle of the 19th century, contracting its role in Islamic society. However, waqfs are now in the stage of revival by debt ridden governments of the world, as a means of expanding social welfare and supplying public goods and services through the private sector without increasing government expenditure.