
During the golden age of Islam, waqf (plural: awqaf) was the engine that powered public services. Wealthy Muslims would endow property — land, buildings, farms, shops — whose income funded public goods in perpetuity.
At its peak, waqf funded:
In the Ottoman Empire alone, waqf assets comprised roughly one-third of all productive land.
The concept is simple but powerful:
Unlike a regular donation that's spent once, a waqf generates income indefinitely. The principal is preserved while the returns do the work.
Colonialism systematically dismantled waqf systems across the Muslim world. Governments seized waqf land, redirected revenues, and replaced the system with state-controlled services. What took centuries to build was destroyed in decades.
UMMA Farm is modeled on the historical agricultural waqf. Here's how it mirrors the original system:
This isn't a new idea — it's a return to one of Islam's most powerful charitable institutions.
Every contribution to UMMA Farm builds a modern waqf — a productive endowment that generates food, revenue, and humanitarian impact for years to come.