Al Amanah Bank urged to establish pilgrims fund

Manila, Philippines - A leading Muslim rights advocate has urged Al Amanah Islamic and Investment Bank of the Philippines to tap the savings of Filipino Muslims into a pilgrims fund.

Al Amanah is the country’s only Shariah-oriented commercial bank. It is now majority owned by the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP).

Philippine Council on Islam and Democracy (PCID) director Amina Rasul-Bernardo said Muslims are required by their religion to make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lives.

“Due to the high cost of making the pilgrimage, Muslims are forced to start saving on a monthly basis to prepare for the hajj,” Bernardo said.

In most countries that have a significant Muslim population, the Islamic banks establish a tabung hajj or a pilgrims fund board that is specifically designed to pool all the savings solely for the hajj of each individual.

If Al Amanah forms a tabung hajj and the Filipino Muslim community embraces it, the bank could have a huge deposit base which could be re-lent in the traditional banking functions.

DBP chairman Jose A. Nunez Jr. said that the board would form a working group to look into the proposal.

In Indonesia, the Lembaga Tabung Hajj has a depositor base of 6.9 million as of February 2012. The fund has grown so big that it had the luxury of declaring annual dividends.

In Malaysia, for example, a tabung hajj has grown so large that it was able to acquire huge plantations. It has even made real estate investments in Mecca to accommodate Malaysian pilgrims.