Historical evidence demonstrates the enormous role waqf institutions have played in the development and advancement of Muslims throughout the Muslim history. With the proper structure and strategy, waqf contributes to numerous spheres of life, including mainstream economic development. Contemporary development of Islamic finance has enabled the waqf concept to be linked to various financial products, including Shariah-compliant investment instruments, such as, Islamic unit trust funds and Islamic wholesale funds. This paper aims to highlight the current applications of the Waqf-Featured Fund (WFF) in the Malaysia Islamic Fund Management Industry. This is in relation to the launch of a new WFF framework to facilitate the offering of Islamic funds with waqf characteristics. The study took both qualitative via in-depth semi-structured interviews with eleven (11) WFF stakeholders, as well as, analyzing of policy documents, journal articles, books, and online resources. The findings shed light on the current issues and challenges confronting waqf projects in Malaysia, as well as the current guidelines and essential requirements for the WFF, the current application of the WFF in the Malaysian Islamic Fund Management (IFM) industry and a proposal for the future application model, which includes fund collection, investment structure, distribution process, and fund reporting.

The waqf concept has been integrated into a variety of financial assets, including Shariah-compliant investment vehicles like unit trusts. With the appropriate structure and strategy, waqf can support many spheres of life, including the growth of the mainstream economy. This paper aims to highlight the recent development of waqf-linked unit trust funds within the Malaysian context and identify the underlying governance principle for waqf. The current study employed a qualitative research approach through document analysis of previous literature. The paper concludes that the waqf unit trust fund, which upholds strong governance of accountability and transparency as well as backed by the stakeholder theory may contribute to advancing the social and economic well-being of the ummah.