Doha, Qatar: Qatar’s endowment (waqf) sector is witnessing a qualitative transformation in its tools and management approaches, as part of the General Directorate of Endowments at the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs’ efforts to respond to growing community needs and achieve sustainable developmental impact.
Within this evolving framework, the “Waqf of Waqfs” initiative stands out as a pioneering model that reflects renewed investment thinking aimed at maximizing the impact of endowments and expanding the circle of their benefit.
The concept of “Waqf of Waqfs” is based on directing the returns of an original endowment toward establishing new endowments. This approach transforms the waqf from a static entity focused solely on preserving its principal into a dynamic, growth-oriented system that generates successive endowments. Through this cumulative process, avenues of charitable giving expand over time, ensuring sustainability and amplifying long-term impact.
Dr. Mohammed Abdul Latif Al-Nuaimi, preacher at the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, described the initiative as a significant shift in contemporary waqf thinking. He noted that it strikes a balance between safeguarding and developing existing endowment assets on the one hand, and generating new endowments on the other, thereby creating an upward growth trajectory that strengthens the waqf’s role in supporting educational, health, social, and environmental projects. Dr. Al-Nuaimi explained that waqf represents one of the greatest forms of ongoing charity, whose benefits continue beyond a person’s lifetime. Spending for the sake of God, he added, has profound spiritual effects, including inner peace, reassurance, blessings in wealth, and protection from harm, alongside its positive societal impact in promoting social solidarity, service provision, and sustainable development.
He noted that the “Waqf of Waqfs” initiative offers a practical advancement of endowment sustainability by reinvesting returns to create new waqfs, enhancing efficiency, strengthening transparency and governance, and increasing the waqf’s effectiveness in meeting modern societal needs. While sustainability has long been embedded in Islamic endowment traditions, this initiative introduces a new developmental dimension by expanding the scope of giving and transforming the waqf into a continuously flowing system of goodness.
Dr. Al-Nuaimi highlighted that the idea of renewable endowments has deep roots in Islamic history, citing examples from the Prophetic era and the Rightly Guided Caliphate, such as the Prophet Muhammad’s (peace be upon him) endowment of the orchards of Mukhayriq and Umar ibn Al-Khattab’s endowment of his land in Khaybar.
