Women's Awqaf Serving Knowledge

Women establishing Waqf for education

There is a strong tradition of Muslim women historically establishing endowments for education including schools, books and libraries. With a great emphasis on acquiring knowledge in Islam, educational institutions were pioneering during eras of prosperity across Muslim empires, and were also attacked by enemies like the Mongols who destroyed books in Islamic lands.

There are many examples of women endowing their wealth for books, libraries, knowledge and students, including:

• The Qayrawani maid, Fadl, owned by Abu Ayyub, wrote a copy of the Qur’an by hand and made it a Waqf for reciters in the year 295 AH (907 AD).
• Fatimah al-Hadina of Tunisia endowed a collection of valuable works on the Uqba ibn Nafi mosque in Qayrawan, in the fifth century AH.
• Fatimah bint Muhammad al-Fadili was interested in collecting books in various arts and she endowed all her books to the students of the Hanbali school of Islamic jurisprudence.
• Sarah, the daughter of Sheikh Ali bin Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab from the 19th century AH endowed a decorated copy of the third part of the interpretation of Sahih Muslim by Abu Zakariya Yahya ibn Sharaf al-Nawawi.
• Norah, daughter of Imam Faisal bin Turki, endowed in the year 1283 AH (1866 AD) a copy of the book Ighathat al-Lahfan min Masa'id al-Shaytan by Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah.

There are also many women who endowed properties as Waqf. They dedicated their revenues to spending on schools and students of knowledge, including:

• Jihan Qadin, the wife of Ismail Pasha in Egypt, endowed lands and farms in 1902, dedicating their revenue to the scholars of Al-Azhar University and its students.
• Jamila, daughter of Nasir al-Dawla al-Hasan ibn Abdullah al-Hamadani, was one of the most famous women of the fourth century AH. She endowed significant wealth to the mosque of Prophet Yunus.
• Zaynab, daughter of Muhammad Ali Pasha, endowed some great Waqfs to Al-Azhar University and arranged salaries for scholars of the four schools of Islamic jurisprudence. She also made Waqfs for 14 mosques, including the mosque of Hussein in Egypt, and the mosques of Sayyida Nafisa and Sayyida Zaynab.
• Fatimah, daughter of Ismail bin Muhammad bin Ali, the Khedive of Egypt, endowed the Egyptian University in 1909 AD with 674 acres, and donated six acres of land to the university, as well as jewels valued at 18,000 Egyptian pounds.

The education Waqf we offer at IBW is a great opportunity for women and men to continue this great tradition of investing in knowledge for current and future generations.

By International British Waqf

UK