 In this module, we shall spend a little time on the institution of WAKF and its relevance for Islamic banking and finance. WAKF is an old Islamic institution which was primarily used for charitable purposes. However, over the centuries, WAKF has evolved into something which is not just about charity or donation or about just doing some good deeds. But actually, this has become a vehicle for business. In fact, in Islamic society or Islamic economy, before the advent of the modern corporation, the main tool or vehicle for doing business sustainably, it was WAKF. As you know, the Islamic law of inheritance is applicable to individuals. If I have some assets, I have a house, I have a business. If I die today and I have got all these businesses owning to me, they are my businesses individually, then my death would lead to the distribution of this. What would be deemed as an estate in Islamic law and would be distributed? If I have made a huge business, that business would actually get distributed and if my heirs, they don't like each other, this means that would be the end of the business. That used to happen in the early history of Islam. People, they would have their businesses or whatever, but upon their death, the business would be distributed, would be divided into the heirs. WAKF was devised at that time to protect the businesses. If a business was put into a WAKF structure, of course, I as an individual would cease to exist as its owner. However, I could be a beneficiary, my children could be the beneficiaries, other people I nominate in the WAKF deed, they could be the beneficiaries and in this way, once I die, the WAKF would remain there. So, this is what I mean by a vehicle for doing business in a sustainable way. In modern Islamic banking and finance, there are structures which are quite close to WAKF and they are being used in different transactions. SPVs in Sukuk, for example, they could be deemed as WAKF as well, a form of WAKF. It is not exactly the traditional WAKF, but it is a trust structure. The trust structure gets a lot of implications from the WAKF structure in Islam. Trust structure is an English law structure. So, it is not exactly a WAKF, but this could be a WAKF as well in certain cases. WAKF-based taqaful, we studied a few days back, that is an obvious example of the use of WAKF in a modern Islamic finance product. Cash WAKF Sukuk. Now, cash WAKF is a very interesting tool. Traditionally, if I wanted to set up a WAKF, I would be buying a piece of land or if I already had a piece of land, I would declare this as a WAKF. And the income from that land would go to the beneficiaries. Yateemo ko chali gai, Ghuraba ko chali gai, whosoever would be the beneficiaries, they would receive income from that WAKF, WAKF land. In modern times, the scholars have come up with this idea of cash WAKF. Now, through a cash WAKF structure, I can put some money into a cash WAKF and that money can be used to generate WAKF assets. In fact, in a radical view on cash WAKF, I can put my money, the use of this for a certain time period in a WAKF, with the possibility of getting my money back as well. For example, if I want to put 1 million rupees into a WAKF in such a way that the WAKF would invest that money and the return coming from that would be used for the WAKF purposes after 10 years, I get my money back. That is something which is becoming very popular in quite a number of countries, especially in the forest. Islamic endowments or Islamic WAKF, they could be deemed as a very good example for Islamic philanthropy. In fact, promoting Islamic philanthropy through Islamic endowments. In the past, these endowments or WAKF, they were used for developing a lot of infrastructure projects. Canals, roads, etc. I think WAKF can be used as an effective tool for developing a number of infrastructure projects in modern Islamic economies.