In 16th-century Cairo, waqf deeds quietly sustained entire communities. They paid for schools, hospitals, burial shrouds, soup kitchens, and inns for travelers. A waqf, by definition, is an Islamic endowment locked in perpetuity for the public good. It wasn’t reserved for the wealthy. Middle-class families, artisans, and widows gave what they could to serve the living and the dead.

Today, that tradition feels like a thing of the past. But its spirit is deeply needed, perhaps now more so than ever, especially as many families struggle with the cost of dying.

In Egypt, families can spend over a month’s salary on burial expenses. In Jordan, funeral costs often exceed six weeks’ wages for the average household. In Morocco, the death of a family breadwinner can wipe out savings, forcing families to borrow or seek help.

The emotional weight of losing a loved one is heavy enough. But the added financial burden can turn grief into crisis.
This raises an important point: What if we cared for death like we once cared for life? Together.

A tradition that sustained communities
Waqf systems were more than charity. They were the building blocks of the community and its infrastructure. In Ottoman Istanbul, waqf-funded kitchens fed thousands. In Mughal India, endowments supported schools, shelters, and funeral arrangements. Many included burial expenses, covering shrouds and services.

This reflected a core Islamic value. The janazah prayer is a fard kifayah, a communal obligation. If no one fulfills it, the whole community is accountable. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ encouraged easing each other’s burdens in times of illness, loss, and poverty.

But today, families live far apart. Support networks are usually non-existent or stretched past their breaking point. What was once instinctive must now be rebuilt with intent and new tools.

Where tech and tradition meet
Today, the idea of waqf is being quietly digitized. In Indonesia, platforms like Waqf World let users create micro-endowments online, pooling small contributions to support education, housing, and funeral care. In Saudi Arabia, the General Authority for Awqaf has launched a national platform to set up and manage waqf contributions transparently.

These are small steps, but they show how Islamic economic values can evolve without losing their essence.
Still, funeral care is often missing from modern financial systems. Even where takaful exists, it doesn’t always reach lower-income or cross-border Muslim communities.

This is where mutual protection models are quietly gaining ground.

The role of tabarru’-based funds
A tabarru’ model is built on voluntary contributions. Members give to support one another, with no expectation of return. These pooled funds are used for agreed-upon purposes like funeral support, family relief, and debt clearance.
Islamic cooperatives already use this model in Malaysia and Indonesia. In Turkiye, blockchain tools are being explored to better track waqf and zakat flows.

Not all these systems are called waqf. But they carry its spirit, shared care, mutual support, and non-profit intent.

A quiet revival in motion
What’s needed isn’t just financial coverage. It’s a mindset shift. A way to re-normalize end-of-life planning, not out of personal fear, but as a communal responsibility, rooted in dignity and care.

The LifeDAO (TLD), for example, recently launched its Life Protection Benefit, a global mutual fund where members contribute to protect one another. If a member passes away, the fund supports their loved ones. Built as a decentralized, member-governed system, the fund, while not a waqf in name, reflects the same principles.
It reminds us that care at the end of life doesn’t need to be commercialized. It can be collective.

Reclaiming what we never lost
Islamic finance is often defined by rules. But behind the rules is a spirit that encourages mercy, fairness, and communal care. Waqf is one of the clearest expressions of that spirit.

The challenge now is to make what once worked work again. That means building systems that are borderless but grounded, digital but human, accessible yet intentional.

It means creating spaces where the values of our traditions meet the realities of modern life.

At the end of the day, it’s not just about who pays for a funeral. It’s about who shows up when it matters most. And if our ancestors built entire systems of care, we can too.

Sharene Lee is chief operating officer & co-founder of Takadao

From e-visa registrations to climate-controlled tents and real-time crowd monitoring, everything was more coordinated and streamlined as Saudi Arabia continues its attempt to strengthen its tourism sector, backed by the rising number of religious devotees.

Religious tourism as a core growth engine
When Saudi Arabia launched its Vision 2030 plan in 2016, tourism was positioned as a key pillar of economic diversification, with religious travel viewed as the kingdom's most scalable and dependable asset. Nearly a decade later, the results are surpassing initial benchmarks.

In 2024, over 18.5 million pilgrims visited the kingdom - 16.9 million for Umrah and 1.61 million for Hajj, according to data reported by Skift and the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah. The goal is to welcome 30 million Umrah pilgrims annually by 2030.

According to the kingdom's General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT), 1.67 million pilgrims performed Hajj in 2025, with the vast majority - 1.51 million people from 171 countries - arriving from abroad.

Breaking the numbers down further, in 2025, air travel dominated arrivals (1.58 million), while land and sea routes together accounted for 8%. 

The demographic split between men and women was almost down the middle, with 878,000 and 795,000, respectively. There were only 10% Saudi nationals for Hajj, which illustrates that the annual pilgrimage remains, first and foremost, a global gathering.  

While the total attendance dropped  8.5% from 1,833,164 pilgrims recorded in 2024, Hajj 2025 remained the world's largest coordinated religious convention. 

The other main pilgrimage is Umrah, which, unlike Hajj, operates year-round and continues to drive volume growth.

According to GASTAT and the Ministry of Hajj, 6.5 million international visitors performed Umrah in the first quarter of 2025 alone, an 11% jump on the previous year.

This was owed to an expanded e-visa scheme that now covers more than 60 countries and to an airline network rapidly stitching new routes across Asia and Africa.

Vital contribution 

Religious tourism contributes roughly $12 billion annually to Saudi Arabia's economy, making up nearly 20% of the non-oil economy and around 7% of the total GDP, according to Astrolabs Insights 2024. 

Spending data from Visa's Travel Pulse Index for Ramadan 2025 showed a 162% year-on-year surge in Makkah during the holy month, with food and beverage comprising 27% of transactions, followed by accommodation and transport.

In Madinah, spending rose 64% during the same period, with official data suggesting pilgrims typically spend between $1,300 - $4,000 per trip, depending on the package and duration. 

The sector also delivers employment opportunities. In 2023, religious tourism supported over 936,000 jobs, with projections rising to 1.6 million by 2030 as Umrah capacity and infrastructure grow.

Megaprojects building a pilgrim metropolis
Saudi Arabia's infrastructure investments under its Vision 2030 transformation agenda are reshaping the physical landscape of pilgrimage.

From hotel expansions to rail upgrades and enhanced airport capacity, these megaprojects are designed to scale the volume and quality of religious tourism.

In Makkah, the Masar Destination project on King Abdulaziz Road, is a $26.6 billion mixed-use corridor, which will host 24,000 hotel rooms and 13,000 residential units, accommodating up to 158,000 pilgrims annually.

The Rua Al Madinah redevelopment in Madinah reportedly spans 1.5 million square meters and will add 47,000 keys, host 149,000 visitors, and create 93,000 jobs across hospitality, transport, and retail.

Radisson Hotel Group also announced two new properties in Madinah with further expansion planned, citing the city's more stable, year-round demand. Wyndham Hotels & Resorts plans to open 100 Super 8 hotels by 2030, many in Makkah and Madinah's mid-market segment.

In addition to this, major upgrades in air and rail are also underway. For instance, the King Salman International Airport in Riyadh will feature six runways and handle up to 120 million passengers annually by 2030, with a capacity set to reach 185 million by 2050. 

The Haramain High-Speed Railway added two million seats in 2025, and transported nearly 70% of international Umrah pilgrims this year between Jeddah, Makkah, and Madinah in under 45 minutes. 

During Hajj, the Mashair Metro supported last-mile transport, moving up to 72,000 passengers per hour across key ritual sites, including Mina, Arafat, Muzdalifah, Jamarat, and the Grand Mosque.

Digital pilgrim and smart Hajj
Saudi Arabia's Smart Hajj initiative is transforming the pilgrimage experience through AI, mobile platforms, and real-time data systems.

At the center of this digital transformation is Nusuk, the official Hajj and Umrah "super-app," which offers e-visa processing, itinerary updates, cashless payments, and access to transport and emergency services.

As of early 2025, Nusuk had surpassed 12 million downloads and is now available in 14 languages. Pilgrims are also issued RFID-enabled smart cards that store personal, medical, and logistical data.

The Ministry of Interior deployed over 2,000 drones and smart surveillance cameras across the holy sites during this year's annual pilgrimage. These AI-powered systems feed into a central control room that uses satellite imagery and predictive analytics to detect and resolve crowd bottlenecks in real-time.

Transit systems have also been upgraded. The Mashair Metro now adjusts train dispatch frequencies based on crowd density. In 2025, train intervals were reduced by up to 60% during peak congestion to ease platform pressure.

Inclusivity is also improving. In 2024, the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah introduced VR orientation modules for elderly and first-time pilgrims. Offered in over 10 languages, the program helps users become familiar with the rituals before arrival.

From Hajj-only to Umrah plus
To extend stay durations and increase visitor spending, the Ministry of Tourism has launched a program encouraging pilgrims to combine religious rites with visits to destinations such as Jeddah's Al-Balad, Taif, or the Red Sea coast.

The initiative aims to boost the average length of stay from five to nine nights and lift per capita spending beyond $1,000 by integrating culture, heritage, and leisure with religion.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's stopover program offers 96-hour transit visas with complimentary hotel stays, further supporting extended visits.

This approach helps reduce seasonality, distributing traffic beyond peak Hajj and Ramadan periods, and creates year-round demand for transportation, accommodation, and local services.

Consider The LifeDAO (TLD). It’s not the only example and it shouldn’t be the focal point but it does offer a working case. TLD operates as a DAO to provide financial protection without traditional insurance structures.

Members voluntarily contribute to a communal fund, and when one passes away, their nominee receives a direct payout, without gatekeeping, delays, or profit motives.

Everything from fund governance to decision-making happens transparently, guided by consultation (shura) rather than executive fiat. It’s a financial tool that feels more like a community than a corporation.

Elsewhere, DAOs are funding regenerative agriculture, supporting decentralized journalism, and offering peer-powered alternatives to health insurance. The point isn’t to romanticize the tech but to spotlight a growing movement of people using it to build systems that serve, not extract.

What stands in the way
Of course, this model isn’t without its challenges.

According to the World Economic Forum (2023), more than 60% of adults globally lack the digital skills needed to securely use blockchain tools. There are also legal gray areas: DAOs remain unregulated in many jurisdictions, making it harder to enforce agreements or protect contributors from fraud.

But these aren’t reasons to dismiss the model. They’re reminders that the work ahead is real and necessary. Building ethical alternatives takes more than smart contracts. It requires community trust, governance education, and a willingness to prioritize long-term resilience over short-term returns.

The real question isn’t “Can it work?”
It’s whether we have the courage to build financial systems that reflect the values we say we believe in.

If blockchain is just another way to hoard, hide, or hustle then we’ve learned nothing. But if it becomes a tool to redistribute trust, decentralize power, and amplify shared responsibility, then we may be witnessing not a technological revolution, but a moral one.

So the question isn't whether blockchain can redeem global finance.

It’s whether we’re ready to redeem it by showing up, shaping it, and making sure it doesn’t leave our communities behind.

Because in the end, faith in finance won’t be restored through slogans. It’ll be rebuilt through systems people can see, trust, and shape together — one block, one voice, and one shared decision at a time.

Sharene Lee is chief operating officer & co-founder of Takadao

For all the odds, the ESG industry continues to grow. Nearly 9 out of 10 investors, who participated in a Bloomberg study, suggested that ESG leads to better returns, resilient portfolios and enhanced fundamental analysis. Ongoing pressure on companies to consider ESG initiatives is certainly leaving an impact on investors and corporations framing their commercial decisions. 

Yet there remains the risk of greenwashing, with companies feigning environmental consciousness to bolster credibility. Deutsche Bank’s asset manager DWS was fined €25 million earlier this year for “aggressive” advertising that “did not reflect reality”. 

This is not an isolated event, with several multi-national companies such as Nestle, Shell, Starbucks and Apple accused of similar transgressions. Often companies misrepresent their eco-friendly goals to generate demand. 

Indeed, most companies that embed ESG in their strategic decision-making were established on the pillars of profit maximization. This means that healthy bottom lines will be the touchstone of all commercial decisions.

For vocal thinkers such as Milton Friedman, the social responsibility of businesses is to increase profits, leaving ESG considerations to regulation. So long as companies are following the law of the land, claims Friedman, there is no need for them to consider this extraneous factor.  

Of course, the downside is that companies will look to circumvent laws to achieve what they wish to, not what they should. Intent, therefore, is key, which calls for an overhaul in a company’s approach. Environmental considerations must be embedded into a firm’s mission statement, diluting the notion of prioritizing financial returns as a core objective of ESG investing.

Viable alternative
Impact Investment represents a viable alternative to ESG, with the former aiming to achieve positive social good whilst generating financial returns. Rather than isolated activities such as planting a score of trees on abandoned land, impact investment conflates social good with the need to generate returns.

A good example would be investing in companies that manufacture smartphones but those that do not extract metals from conflict zones. Impact investment is inherently forward-looking. 

Impact Investment also maintains a strong focus on measurability, with enterprises measured on financial returns and the impact created. Unlike ESG where goals are subjugated to financial returns, impact investment looks to an initiative’s end goal.

It may be less attractive to investors as an asset class, but its focus on long-term outcomes does combat the short-termism of conventional capitalism, and falls in lockstep with holistic principles of Islamic finance. 

Rizwan Rahman is a UK trained lawyer based in Doha

According to the State of the Global Islamic Economy Report 2023/24 by DinarStandard, Muslim travelers spent $133 billion globally in 2022 - a 17% jump from the previous year. This figure is expected to climb to $174 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 5.5%.

Reimagining halal travel

What was once a niche space focused on halal food and prayer spaces, is evolving into a more adventurous, immersive offering - and some trailblazers are already leading the way.

For instance, Denmark-based Albatros Expeditions is planning to launch the world’s first halal-certified cruise to Antarctica in 2026. Meals will be prepared in a halal-certified kitchen, no pork or alcohol will be served onboard, and the ship’s sauna will include ladies-only hours.

“Over the past decade, we’ve seen a noticeable shift in the preferences of Muslim travelers,” Dinçer Özkaya, general manager of SalamBooking, a global marketplace for Muslim-friendly travel tells Salaam Gateway. 

“While traditional halal travel - focused on comfort, convenience, and religious compliance - still forms the core of the market, a growing segment of travelers, especially younger generations, are now seeking more experiential and adventure-driven journeys.”

To meet this demand, SalamBooking is designing experiences such as hiking in Bosnia, horseback riding in Cappadocia, and eco-safaris in Africa - all designed to be halal-conscious.

“Muslim travelers today are seeking more than just adrenaline or sightseeing - they want purposeful adventures that align with their lifestyle and faith,” says Özkaya.

“As a platform, we’ve learned that Muslim adventure travelers don’t want to compromise between thrill and faith - and they shouldn’t have to. Their expectations are about integration: being able to experience the world fully while staying true to who they are.”

New destinations, new horizons

While traditional Muslim-friendly destinations such as Turkey, Egypt, and Andalusia continue to attract travelers with their combination of Islamic heritage, infrastructure, and natural beauty, SalamBooking is also seeing growth in emerging adventure hotspots.

“Our core markets - including Turkey, the Balkans, Andalusia, Egypt, and parts of Europe -continue to grow steadily due to their strong Islamic heritage, developed infrastructure, and natural appeal. These regions strike a perfect balance between cultural depth, outdoor activities, and halal compliance, making them ideal for families and experience-seeking travelers alike,” says Özkaya.

He adds that demand is growing across Far East and Southeast Asian countries, particularly Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Indonesia — places that are investing in halal tourism infrastructure and offering eco-adventures and wellness retreats tailored to the next generation of Muslim travelers.

“We're developing curated experiences in Malaysia’s tropical rainforests, South Korea’s mountainous national parks, Japan’s cultural countryside, and even combined Umrah + nature retreats in Saudi Arabia - all while ensuring they meet the expectations of our audience.”

Malaysia has taken a leading role by introducing official certifications such as the Muslim-friendly tourism and hospitality assurance and recognition (MFAR) in 2020 and the Muslim-friendly tour guide (MFTG) program in 2017, which now spans nine states.

“Both MFAR and MFTG play a vital role in gaining the trust and confidence of Muslim travelers, as these initiatives maximise their experience in Malaysia and allow them to take advantage of its cultural, natural, and other attractions,” says Arif Hakimi bin Mat Yusuf, tourism officer at Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board.

While MFAR was originally established as a standard for Muslim-friendly accommodation, the program has since expanded its scope to encompass spas and wellness centers, travel agencies, transportation hubs, shopping malls, amusement parks, rest areas, tourism products, and convention centers, according to Hakimi.

Bridging the gaps

For all its progress, the Muslim-friendly adventure segment faces key challenges. “Finding local guides, accommodation, and transport that align with our values isn’t always easy, especially in remote regions,” Amira Patel, founder of adventure Group The Wanderlust Women tells Salaam Gateway. 

Özkaya points to a broader gap in industry awareness. “Many local operators, accommodations, and guides still lack an understanding of Muslim travelers’ specific needs - from halal food and prayer facilities to modesty considerations and cultural sensitivities, making it harder for Muslim travelers to fully trust new destinations.”

“Sometimes people don’t understand why a group of Muslim women want to climb a mountain or travel alone. But with time, patience, and community-building, we work to shift that perspective,” adds Patel. 
 
Another hurdle is the lack of global halal certification standards for adventure tourism -something that Özkaya say contributes to fragmentation and confusion. 

He notes the path forward lies in equipping suppliers with the right tools and mindset. “The biggest untapped opportunities now lie in building inclusive awareness and training programs for suppliers worldwide, expanding faith-integrated wellness, eco-tourism, and adventure Umrah extensions, and developing new destinations in Africa, Central Asia, and South America with tailored Muslim-friendly services.”