The psychology of giving behavior in Islam

Abstract

Waqf is a financial charitable endowment established by withholding immovable and movable properties to perpetually spend its revenue on fulfilling public needs, once the property is created asWaqf, it could never be given as gift, inherited, or sold. Traditionally, Waqfwas inculcated in Muslims’ culture, and has included in all walks of life. When it was the main source for various public services that been provided to communities. Therefore, Muslims in all over the world are exposed to participate in Waqf, the value of giving is one that spans all cultures and religious faiths and is an important means of establishing a social safety net for the poor. Oftentimes, charitable giving is motivated by people’s attitude and behavior, religious beliefs, cultures and religious educations. This is a literature review paper that focuses on the strong connection between motives for giving and outcomes of giving. The purpose is to shed light on some of the key expressions of giving in Islam, and the psychology of giving that is quite difficult to determine in most of the studies. Some motives and effects of giving are easy to explain and the wisdom behind them is clear. On the other hand some of these phenomena's are hard to explain. However Islam stresses that giving charity increases our wealth, and makes the mercy of Allah befall on us. The findings of this study signified that the major motives for giving are behavior, attitude, faith (belief), and education. And the outcomes of giving are God blessing, more rewards, and psychological comfort that can be perceived from happiness and joy of giving as well as self-satisfaction. Hence, it is highly advisable to look comprehensively at this topic and introduce an effective framework that can help people to have better understanding on the psychology of giving.