Transcript Slide 1 - Arsip UII

A)
Voluntary provision of public goods
The provision of public goods by voluntary agents is as old as Islam itself.
Upon the arrival of. the Prophet (pbuh) in Madinah, the first mosque was built by
voluntary labor and material. Defense activities of the newly established city/state
were carried out on a voluntary basis too. The Prophet's army consists of people
who used to volunteer their labor and use their own weapons. So me social services
such as lighting the mosque and providing food to the poor were also performed
on voluntary basis. Before the arrival of the Prophet (pbuh), drinking water used
by a Jewish owner of Biruha' well. The Prophet called on Muslims to buy the well
and give its water free, and Uthman did that. Thus, in the Islamic State, water was
also provided free on philanthropic grounds.
Soon after the establishment of the Islamic state, voluntary philanthropic
work assumed an institutional shape and the institution of philanthropic waqf
came into existence. Early properties of philanthropic waqf included Mukhairiq
gardens and Bairuha' well, both in Madinah, and Umar's orchard in Khaibar. These
awqaf were used to provide income for the Prophet's families (head of state's
expenses), weapons for the army, stipends for the poor and free drinking water for
inhabitants of Madinah (18). As time went by, the awqaf institution became the
provider of education, health care and mosques' construction and maintenance;
and major contributor to financial aid to the poor and building and maintaining
border defense posts and forts. The institution of Awqaf is an essential part of the
Islamic economic system. It can be received to re-assume an important role in
providing social goods and in contributing to the infrastructural development of
the Muslim countries.
Additionally, zakah as the third pillar of Islam, provides a permanent flow
of resources devoted for restoring distributive equity and social welfare.
Zakah is essentially a function of the Islamic government, but it can be carried
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18 Hassan Abdallah Al Amin, ed. Idarat wa Tathmir Mumtalakat al awqaf, IRTI Jeddah 1989.
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