Sharia Compliant Tenancy Management Framework for Waqf Properties: 

  SHARIA COMPLIANT TENANCY MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK FOR WAQF PROPERTIES: TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY OF INCOME

Dr Ibrahim Bin Sipan, Prof. Madya Dr Ahmad Che Yaacob, Dr Rohaya Abdul Jalil, Dr

Mustafa Omar, Dr Fauziah Raji, Farah Nadia Abas and Noor Azimah Ghazali

Faculty of Built Enviroment and Surveying

University of Technology Malaysia

Johor Bahru

ABSTRACT

It is still a loop in the management of waqf property; inefficiency in waqf management still exists in Malaysia. As a consequence, the income of waqf institutions in some states is relatively small as a result of large rental arrears. Thus, the vulnerability of income generated by the waqf properties should be addressed through sound principles of tenancy management (TM). This research seeks to propose a Integrating Sharia Compliant Tenancy Management framework for waqf properties as a means of increasing the waqf income which will ultimately strengthen the value and nature of waqf. This framework is based on best practice tenancy management (BPTM) while integrating sharia compliance with waqf needs and waqf philosophy. Data has been collected from document analysis, focus group discussion, in-depth interviews and in-situ observation. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with waqf property managers and tenants to investigate tenancy management attributes of waqf properties. The compliance of Sharia, adherence to waqf needs and the issues of tenancy management are investigated too. By considering the full spectrum of tenancy management, the attributes of tenancy management could be categorized as (i) tenant selection, (ii) tenancy businesses, (iii) rental determination, (iv) tenancy agreement, (v) enforcement and (vi) waqf property manager. The findings of this research revealed that waqf property manager were not adopting a full Sharia Compliant tenancy management and implementing different practices of tenancy management because they have their own waqf enactments, State Islamic Religious Council’s policies and standard operations procedure. The proposed framework would assist to improvise the waqf properties to be on par with the conventional building while Sharia principles are being fully observed in the full spectrum of waqf tenancy management.

Keywords: Tenancy management; Waqf properties; Best practices; Sharia compliance; Waqf philosophy