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| جامع درويش باشا في دمشق |
Appendix A:
Al-Waqf: One of the Glorious Deeds and Praiseworthy
Exploits of the Muslims[1]
Waqf is a means of drawing
nearer to Allah. It is an act of worship. Waqf shows the veracity of the
endower’s faith, his desire for goodness, his avidity for the interests of the
Muslims, his love for them and their subsequent generations, and for their
successive benefits. Since the time of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and
grant him peace, the Muslims have provided the most sublime examples in the
fields of waqf. They have made endowments that cannot be counted and
dedicated properties that cannot be calculated. Their endowments cover so many
aspects of goodness and spheres of kindness, as well as facilities of life:
schools, masjids, hospitals, plots of land, buildings, wells, libraries,
weapons, and these are for the benefit of children, the poor, soldiers,
scholars and many others.
They haven’t left any sphere of life
except that they have made an endowment for it. There is no need in society
except that they have dedicated some property for it. A quick glance at the
lands of the Islamic world will inform you of the endowments that they made and
the properties that they retained for the sake of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is
He. Their rulers and their ruled took part in this, their commanders and their
soldiers, their merchants and their craftsman, their men and their women, such
that endowments grew in every Muslim country the proceeds of which are
estimated to be hundreds of millions. In every land, these endowments have come
to have a ministry that administers these properties and takes cares of them.
There are thousands of families that live from the fruits of these endowments
and their proceeds and there are also several facilities and numerous benefits
that have continued and have grown out of these endowments and their goodness.
May Allah reward those righteous people with goodness and grant them the most
abundant reward and return. What is saddening and regrettable is that the
desire for waqf in our day, since not that long ago, has decreased
within many Muslims. The souls of many of them have become stingy with
regards to the like of these ongoing charitable deeds and acts of kindness.
This is a saddening phenomenon. If
anything, it shows a lack of desire for return and reward, a weakness of faith
in the Hereafter and its blessings, an intense love for this world and its
passions and people’s preoccupation with this fleeting life and that they
prefer it over the Hereafter and its blessings, such that Allah the Exalted’s
statement accurately describes us: {Yet still you prefer the life of this
world} [Sūrat al-ʿAlā 87:16] and it’s as if we haven’t heard the Exalted’s statement: {when
the Hereafter is better and longer lasting.} [Sūrat al-ʿAlā 87:17], and there is no power or strength
except in Allah, the Most High, the Sublime.
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