The Center of Islamic Economics Studies (CIES) held an activity entitled “CIES Economics Club: Innovating Sustainable Cash Waqf” as a form of improving Islamic economic education and literacy. The activity, which discussed sustainable cash waqf, aims to introduce financial instruments that can be a solution in economic development. This event was held offline and rebroadcast via the Youtube platform to expand the reach of participation and increase the benefits of the material itself for various academics, practitioners, and the general public.
This seminar presented two speakers, namely Prof. Dr. Asfi Manzilati, S. as Deputy Dean for General Affairs, Finance and Human Resources, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Brawijaya and Imam Alfaruq, S.E.I. as Head of the Department of Literacy and Collection of Waqf Dompet Dhuafa. Both have active experience in scientific discussions related to waqf management and literacy. In the ongoing presentation of the material, the speaker discussed starting from the form, benefits to opportunities and implementation of cash waqf as an inclusive and sustainable Islamic social financial instrument.
“The challenge in cash waqf is in its development. As long as it is in accordance with sharia and its eternal value is maintained (the benefits generated from waqf must be eternal, that is actually a requirement of waqf, so the eternal value is the benefits of this waqf must not run out, and that is indeed a requirement of waqf), then cash waqf can be carried out in the financial sector or the real sector. Therefore, innovation is needed to be able to maintain this,” said Prof. Dr. Asfi Manzilati, S in her presentation.
She also added that in Islam, there is a value that all of that is always balanced. There must be a balance between the world and the hereafter. It is permissible for a Muslim to be rich in order to provide benefits to those around them. In the context of Islamic banking, the performance of Islamic financial institutions also needs to follow the principles of Sharia.
Meanwhile, Imam Alfaruq, S.E.I. emphasized the importance of investing in the afterlife with cash waqf and the form of cash waqf, Cash Waqf Liked Deposit (CWLD) and Cash Waqf Liked Sukuk (CWLS).
CWLD is a temporary cash waqf instrument in the form of mudharabah muthlaqah deposits, where the results of the investment are used directly by mauquf’alaih through the CWLD program agreed upon by Nazhir and LKS-PWU.
He also provided several analogies to facilitate the understanding of the participants.
“When UB donates assets to UB nazhir institutions for 30 years using the concept of non-capitalist waqf which is only allowed to take 10% of the profits from operations, then the remaining 90% will be returned to UB community. And this is the concept of waqf, what is managed will be returned to the community,” said Imam Alfaruq
CIES Economics Club is a work program of the Research and Development department that routinely raises current issues to open up discussion space on Islamic economics which is not only aimed at the academic community, but also the general public. During the event, the presentation of material by the speakers received an enthusiastic response from the participants who were active in the question and answer session. (FER/UB PR/ Trans. Iir).
