Readers’ comments: Misplaced concern about non-Muslims managing waqf properties

I read with interest Rasheed Ahmed’s article that raised concerns that the proposed amendment to Section 23 of the Act to allow non-Muslim officials to be appointed to Waqf Boards “risks diluting the historical and religious ethos of the waqf system” (“Proposed Waqf Act amendments strike a discriminatory note for Muslim charitable organizations”).

His concerns are misconstrued, as is the analogy he draws to Jain, Sikh and Hindu religious endowments. Classical Islamic jurisprudence is unambiguously clear that “women, bondsmen and non-Muslims” can be mutawallis, trustees, administrators or managers of waqfs.

A number of British-era cases have also recognised this, and except in the performance of a solely religious or spiritual function, there is no bar on non-Muslims serving as administrators of waqfs. We find several waqfs that were historically administered by non-Muslims, such as those in Malerkotla, Punjab and in the Bombay Presidency.

Concerns about the proposed waqf amendments are genuine, but the concern about non-Muslim officials overseeing temporal administration of charitable waqf properties is misplaced and contrary to both Islamic jurisprudence and precedents in Anglo-Mohammedan Law. – Adhiraj Parthasarthy

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