Page 100 - Zakat & Waqf: Impact on Women and Community Development

90 | Zakat & Waqf: Impact on Women and Community Development
© Zakat & Waqf: Impact on Women and Community Development
ISBN 978-967-####-##-#

including the administration of zakat, fall under the purview of the
respective states, or Sultans (Shuaib et al, 2010). In every state in
Malaysia, it has established its own State Islamic Religious Councils
(SIRCs) to advise the Sultan of each of the states as the head of the
religion. Each SIRCs are the one that manages and administers the
waqf and zakat in each state. Numbers of initiatives were done by
respective SIRCs in the distribution of zakat and waqf to assist the
recipients, such as Perkampungan Asnaf that are built by the Zakat
authorities of each state by using the waqf land to accommodate the
Asnafs as well as providing them opportunities to generate their own
income. As such, there are Perkampungan Asnaf in Selangor and
Johor, Kompleks Asnaf in Kuantan, Taman Desa Asnaf Batu
Bertangkup in Perlis, and many others.

Along with the rise of Islamic social finance, zakat and waqf along with
sadaqah have been innovated to cater to the needs of the target
recipients as well as ensure the financial sustainability. As such, the
integration of the Islamic microfinance industry in Malaysia with Zakat
and Waqf has brought about a lot of innovative products aimed to
assisting SMEs and Micro SMEs in Malaysia. Waqf An-Nur
Corporation (WAN) and SadaqaHouse (SH) by Bank Islam Malaysia
Berhad (BIMB)are among the known institutions in Malaysia that offer
microfinancing services to customers in an effort to ensure the
sustainability of their businesses.

One of the unique features of SadaqaHouse and Waqaf An-Nur
Corporation is that its institutions are funded by Waqf, Zakat and
Sadaqah working together with the SIRCs (as in the case of Waqf An-
Nur where it is appointed by Majlis Agama Islam Johor its mutawalli)
to collect the funds and manage it. SadaqaHouse, on the other hand,
are the product of initiatives by Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad in their
financial inclusion strategy (SadaqaHouse, 2023). Products such as

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