Endowments and the Flourishing of Islamic Scholars

endowment can be for anybody, you are the person who is in charge of the endowment, you are the one who gets to decide, you are the one who gets to decide who uses the endowment. So, for example, you can say that when I die, this garden shall be used for the orphans of this particular madrasa. Or you can say, it will be used for the full Quran of this city, or you can still be used for my family members who are poor, you as the person who chooses the endowment has the right to put all the conditions that you want on it. And it can be as specific or as general as you want. Historically speaking, the reason why scholarship and mustards flourished in Islam was not because of the state,

it was because of the endowments.

Historically speaking,

the reason why scholarship was independent. One of the biggest problems that has taken place is that in the last 150 years, after the advent of colonialism, the old off was acquired by the governments

and what the used to be independent, became dependent upon the government. Simple example of us her for example, not to be controversial, but less than 100 years ago, was when us her was acquired by the government. And there was a huge

rebellion by the Obama versa. They didn't want to be acquired. Because once you're acquired, you're in big trouble. You are salaried employees. You cannot speak your mind. You have influence, so on so forth, our Allama How did our Allama used to live once upon a time who would take care of them? That's the beauty of the classical system was independent, once you are associated with the madrasa with his masjid, so people will leave endowment for the madrasa and they will say, When I die, this building will be rented out and the profits will go to the running of the madrasa. So the madrasa board is getting money from different sources, and they don't have to respond to a politician,

assault on an emir, they are independent. And so Obama flourished because of this. The salaries of the hot leaves and Imams was not the government was not the whole of up. Unfortunately, this is the modern reality of most countries in the Arab and Muslim world. Correct. So when the government is paying your salary, guess what? Your whole tuba is influenced by your salary.

It's human nature. Right. And this is one of the biggest problems that has happened, that you and the fact of the matter is, we also have the same issue here in North America where a lot of times the masjid board will control what the Imam says, right? Where the Imam cannot be independent. Hamdulillah I am independent, don't worry, Hamdulillah that was my one of my first conditions and hamdulillah Al Hamdulillah. This is the reality as well at Hamdulillah. As you all know, and this is before the light Allah upon Allah's blessings on all of us, Al Hamdulillah, that in this community Hamdulillah we are very, very blessed. But the fact of the matter is, let's be real here.

How common is it, that the Imam says something that is too strict for the community, the board doesn't like it.

And then the he gets fired, because why? Because the board did not like what the Imam said. So what's going to happen, the Imams, learn, keep quiet, and preach the version of Islam that the board wants. What type of benefit will come from the OMA in this manner. So this is one of the biggest benefits of the O cough system.

This was the benefit of the cough system that caused our OMA to flourish. And one of the causes of decline of the aroma was the destruction of the knockoff and the acquirement of the governments of what the knockoff used to do, even in the Khilafah building messages and madrasahs and the salaries of the religious clergy was not under the Khalifa. And this is one of the biggest blessings of Allah upon the OMA because you don't want it linked together. Anyway, went to too long tangent but that was to answer your question. We need to revive this concept. And again, there's actually books written on this. The concept of an endowment is Islamic. The western world did not know what

endowment is.

It did not know what an endowment it is an Islamic concept that was then acquired by the Western institutions and then they built upon it and they took it to a different level but the

In reality, the first civilization to have something like an endowment where the officer or the structure remains, and the profits benefit something else, and nobody can sell or buy or acquire the muscle, whether it's a garden, whether it's a building, in our case and the amount of money which is in stocks, for example, that amount cannot be touched. This is new in human civilization. Nobody before these ahaadeeth ever more than others gave that principle and that's why it's so important that we understand and thank Tom for opening this door

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