Waqaf Governance in Qatar: An Evaluative Study in Light of Maqasid Shariah

Abstract

This research aims to study the laws of WAQF (endowment) in Qatar and their structural and internal systems, since its institutionalization in Qatar and the development of its legalization and its regulating texts in the light of the sayings of the jurists. It discusses some of the challenges faced by the administration from the legal and administrative standpoint, evaluates them through maqasid Sharia showed by the organizational and administrative reality of the Qatari waqf regulations and laws. It also discusses the most important issues from the administrative and legal standpoint through information related to management systems, gathers the opinions of the jurists from their traditional and modern sources and justifies their evidence, then analyzes and discusses it from the legal and administrative point of view to reach its purpose. The most prominent issues that the research addresses are the waqf systems in Qatar in terms of administrative independence, its monitoring, and commitment. The research is, therefore, divided into five chapters. The first is an introduction. The second explains the concept of waqf and its most prominent rules from juristic and maqasid viewpoint. The third investigates the reality of waqf in Qatar from the organizational point of view, and the most prominent stages and changes that its administration went through in since its inception. The fourth examines the challenges facing the waqf in Qatar, such as its independence, monitoring, commitment and the future of family endowment. As for the last chapter, it deals with ways to develop waqf systems through contemporary experiences and methods, such as Western systems like the Islamic endowment system, and the application of governance rules for structural systems and internal regulations for the Qatari endowment administration. The research concludes that the waqf is open to everything that would lead to its development and growth as long as it is in its interest and consistent with the principles and rules of Sharia which are established by the jurists of Islam. This includes benefiting from the diversity of Western charitable formulas and their intensity in regulatory laws, and the application of governance rules to systems structure and internal regulations, exposing to Islamic experiences that have been influenced by modern administrative systems and methods, such as the Kuwaiti experience, and exchanging experiences with it.