Waqf: When Holding Back Actually Means Letting Go

In many cities, I am often invited to see a plot of land. Usually on the roadside. Fenced with rusting zinc. Overgrown with waist-high weeds. Then someone says, with a tone somewhere between pride and bitterness: ‘This is waqf land, sir. It has been like this for twenty years.’ Twenty years. Two generations. A good intention left asleep. I always return from such places with a question that is not easy to ask the host: actually, whose land is this? Which Part is Held? Linguistically, waqf means to hold back — al-habs. But hold back what? This is where many people go wrong from the very first step. What is held back in waqf is not its benefit, but its principal. The core asset. The body of the wealth. Land, buildings, money, shares — all are held so they do not diminish, do not change hands, and are not consumed. The Prophet Muhammad concisely formulated this when Umar bin Khattab sought his guidance regarding his best land in Khaibar: ‘Hold back the principal and give away its fruits in charity.’ The scholars later condensed this into a single rule that forms the heart of all waqf jurisprudence — habsul ashl wa tasbilul tsamarah. The land is not to be sold, not to be gifted, and not to be inherited; only its fruits are to flow. Thus, the paradox becomes clear. Holding back and letting go are not contradictory attitudes; they operate on different objects. The principal is held precisely so that the benefit can be released. Ownership is frozen precisely so that utility can move. A healthy waqf always has two simultaneous movements: one hand firmly grips the principal, the other hand opens wide to distribute the results. If both hands grip, the waqf freezes. If both hands open, the asset is consumed and degrades into ordinary charity. Law Number 41 of 2004 refined this meaning into the language of the state. Waqf is not merely a pious deed. Nor is it charity with a larger nominal value. Waqf is a legal act. There is a pledge. There is a donor (wakif). There is a custodian (nazhir). There is an asset whose existence is safeguarded. There is a benefit that is continuously sought to flow. These last two pillars are not separate clauses — they are a single breath: the principal is guarded, the fruits are channelled. The purpose of waqf is not to exhaust wealth. Nor is it merely to preserve it. It is to guard the principal so that its benefits never cease. What is Unsaid, Yet Lived Interestingly, the Qur’an never explicitly mentions the term waqf. Not a single verse. Yet almost all the companions in the closest circle of the Prophet became its practitioners. Umar was merely the first. Uthman bin Affan bought the Raumah Well and handed it over to the people of Medina. Abu Thalhah released the garden he loved most. The same path was followed by many other companions. It is as if they understood something deeper than just the term. That giving is good. But there is a higher form of giving. Giving without expecting return. Letting go without wanting to own again. Perpetuating benefit, even after life ends. And they understood one more thing that we often overlook: waqf does not end with the pledge. The Raumah Well did not become a blessing because it was bought, but because its water continued to flow for the people, day after day, for centuries. The well was held; the water was released. What history records is not the transaction, but that unceasing flow. So, Whose is It? Let us return to the question at the edge of that weed-covered land. If the wakif has released ownership, to whom does the waqf belong? It does not belong to the wakif. From the moment the pledge is made, the right of ownership ends. It cannot be inherited, cannot be sold, cannot be reclaimed. What the wakif continues to own is only the flow of reward as long as the benefit of the waqf remains alive. Does it then become the property of the nazhir? Also no. The nazhir does not receive an inheritance. They are not managing a company asset. They cannot treat waqf property as personal property. Their trust is to guard, develop, and ensure its benefits are continuously felt by the community. Waqf belongs to Allah. The wakif surrenders it. The nazhir manages it. The community enjoys its benefits. And Allah rewards them all. Therein lies the beauty of waqf. It is not a relationship between giver and receiver. It is a collaboration towards heaven. But it is precisely at this point, in practice, that our problems begin. We Do Not Lack Donors, We Have an Excess of ‘Owners’ After years in the field, I have reached a conclusion that is not always comfortable to voice. Waqf in this country rarely fails because of a lack of donors. It more often fails because too many parties still feel a sense of ownership. The wakif’s family who feel entitled to control, because ‘that was grandfather’s land’. The administrators who are reluctant to share control, because ‘I have been looking after it since the beginning’. The institution that keeps the certificate as a symbol of greatness, not as a mandate to work. Everyone feels they are guarding it. When in fact, they are holding it back — in the wrong sense. Returning to the core rule: the correct holding is holding the principal. The wrong holding is also holding back the results. And that is where our sickness lies. The weed-covered land I described at the beginning is essentially a waqf whose principal is perfectly preserved — not sold, not gifted, not inherited — but not a single grain of its fruit has ever been released. Legally, it is valid. In spirit, it is paralysed. Half the rule is followed, the other half is ignored, and we call it safeguarding the trust. Figures That Should Make Us Uneasy The Indonesian Waqf Board estimates that the national potential for cash waqf reaches around Rp180 trillion per year — the largest in the world. According to the Board’s chairman, the realisation so far is only around Rp2.3 trillion. Less than two percent. Land assets tell a similar story. Over 450,000 waqf land plots are recorded nationwide; only about one-tenth are considered to have potential for development.