A bibliometric review of the Waqf literature

Waqf received research attention due to its ability to contribute to socio-economic development. While a high volume of literary evidence on this Islamic social finance instrument is available, the research motivation and study findings are diverse. Therefore, we conduct a bibliometric analysis of waqf literature to understand the pattern and direction of research on Waqf broadly. We collect 319 articles, and reviews on Waqf extracted from the Scopus database, covering a period exceeding 100 years from 1914 until June 2020. We employ RStudio, VOSviewer, and Microsoft Excel for citation analysis, content, and network analyses. A systematic review of recent publications complemented the bibliometric analysis. Alongside revealing the most relevant scientific actors in waqf literature, most researchers on Waqf were from Malaysia; they conducted studies widely on cash Waqf. As a result, we identify four research themes for waqf studies which include (1) Cash Waqf endowment, (2) Islamic accountability and Waqf, (3) Waqf and Islamic social finance, and (4) Governance for Waqf endowment. This is the first study to provide a bibliometric review of waqf literature to address gaps in the existing research and offer directions for future research which could benefit early-career Islamic finance researchers.