Tazkiah Banks: A Future Model for the Establishment of Endowment-Based Business Start-Ups

Abstract

This paper offers a model for a cash waqf bank, called a tazkiah bank―based on crowdfunding, endowment, and the global mobilisation of business through savings and investments―that reinforces societal values and stimulates civil society at the grassroots level. A tazkiah bank is defined as an independent institution that collects funds from donors or endowment contributors (whether institutions or individuals), then routes them to viable, productive, for-profit investments that contribute to economic development and encourage social responsibility. Web-based technology related to social networking would play a key role in the development of tazkiah banks as they would take advantage of feedback and readily available knowledge from various communities in order to gain diverse information that determines which or how projects receive funding and the size of the funds needed. This model aims to promote sustainable economic development by incorporating features that can overcome the shortcomings of traditional Islamic banks and endowment institutions. The success of the tazkiah bank model requires long-term strategies. This paper seeks to explore alternatives by applying Causal Layered Analysis (CLA) methodology to this model in order to delve beneath the superficial signs of issues to explore underpinning systems, structures, and worldviews. To do so, it moves through the four levels of CLA from the most visible (the empirical litany) to the least visible (the realm of myths and metaphors).