Putting Our Model to Independent Scrutiny
Much of what the annual Qurbani produces, such as hides, wool, bone and milk, is thought to go unused, but no one has yet measured how much. Awqaf New Zealand is researching livestock systems designed to improve the utilisation of Qurbani resources, while developing the people and evidence needed to test and operate them. We are opening that work to independent academic scrutiny and publishing every finding freely as a waqf of knowledge, including the results that do not favour us. Eight proposed research themes, anchored in New Zealand, open to independent examination and suitable collaboration.
Helping explain our ideas, research and learning journey
The Knowledge Guide is Awqaf New Zealand’s communication character. It explains; it does not certify, advise, or speak for any scholar, reviewer or partner. It is also a small, open test of research theme 02.
Hijri-Aligned Qurbani Sheep-Dairy Farming
The Economy of the Qurbani Ritual and an Open Invitation to Research, Test and Improve a Proposed Livestock Production System
Eid al-Adha moves ten to eleven days earlier through the solar year, every year, while livestock systems run on solar seasons. This paper proposes an experimental framework for aligning sheep breeding, lambing, dairy production and Qurbani supply with the annually shifting Hijri calendar, and openly invites researchers and specialists to test, challenge and improve the model before anyone treats it as replicable.
English PDF · Arabic PDF (العربية) · Zenodo record
English and Arabic · Licence CC BY 4.0
In plain wordsEid al-Adha arrives about eleven days earlier every year, but sheep breed by the seasons. This paper asks whether a farm could plan around both at once, and invites specialists to show where the idea would fail.
Feasibility Study — Qurbani Sheep-Dairy Pilot
Our first full feasibility study is published openly, so that its assumptions, figures and methods can be examined and challenged. It sets out the design, the capital schedule, the expected social and economic development outcomes, the UN Sustainable Development Goals we can measure against, and an entire section on the questions we cannot yet answer.
It also publishes a correction: an earlier capital schedule omitted items entirely, and a practitioner who reviewed it unprompted was right on every one of them.
DOI10.5281/zenodo.23279953
Always resolves to the current version
Available in English and Arabic (العربية). · Earlier versions (v1 · v2 · v3, superseded) · Feedback log
In plain wordsEvery cost we could identify, every assumption behind it, and a whole section on what we still do not know. If a figure looks wrong, tell us; the feedback log records what we changed and why.
Qurbani Utilisation Index (QUI-Awqaf NZ)
Awqaf New Zealand’s founding claim is that the annual Qurbani is the largest single source of wasted charitable resource. That claim has never been measured. There is no global Qurbani census, and nowhere any count of what becomes of the animal. This note proposes a way to measure it, adapting the published food-loss methodology of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) that underlies SDG indicator 12.3.1(a) to the Qurbani supply chain, and proposing a utilisation rate reported stage by stage rather than as a single headline figure. It also proposes a register of what the field currently publishes about its own Qurbani programmes, recorded as claims rather than as data, because the field counts what it gives away and does not count what it discards.
It contains no findings, and it states its own strongest objections in full, including the objection that Awqaf New Zealand has an interest in the answer. It is offered to universities and government research centres to carry out independently.
DOI10.5281/zenodo.22700036
Always resolves to the current version
Available in English and Arabic (العربية). · PDF (EN) · PDF (AR) · Licence CC BY-NC 4.0
In plain wordsNobody knows how much of each Qurbani animal is actually used. This note proposes a ruler for measuring it. The ruler has not been used yet, so the note contains no results.
This work is published so that others can run it, not so that we can own it
The feasibility study and the Qurbani Utilisation Index are released under an open licence for exactly that reason. Any university, research centre or operator is free to apply the method to a flock, an abattoir or a supply chain it already has, and Awqaf New Zealand does not need to be a party to the work, to be named in it, or to hold any claim over it. We have no farm, no flock and no capital; what we have is a published method, and a method is worth nothing until someone else uses it.
We ask one thing of anyone who does. Measure the utilisation rate and publish it, including the parts of the result that do not favour the method, or us. That number does not currently exist anywhere in the world, and a figure that only appears when it is flattering is not a measurement.
In plain wordsYou do not need our permission. Use the method, then publish what you find, even if it shows we were wrong.
All eight are proposed research themes. None is under way; there is no farm, no flock and no data.
In plain wordsEight open questions, each waiting for a researcher. None has started. Choose the one you could help answer, and get in touch.
Smart Agriculture & IoT
Livestock telemetry, precision dairy systems and Hijri-calendar operational scheduling, and the digital waqf financing that would pay for them.
Generative AI & Cross-Cultural Visual Literacy
Whether farm data can be turned into animated explanation, so that transparency reaches non-technical and multilingual audiences without language as a barrier, and where digital tools stop.
Renewable Energy & the Circular Economy
Fuller use of Qurbani by-products, renewable microgrids and carbon-conscious farming, measured as a published utilisation rate: the share of each animal's value returned to social development. No one in this industry publishes that number.
Vocational Training & Workforce Development
The proposed farms would be training farms from their first day, run with an accredited provider; no host or provider agreement has yet been made. We are not inventing a training model; we propose to replicate a New Zealand one that has worked for a century under public-trustee oversight, for communities it has never reached.
Law, Regulation & Shariah Design
A temporary cash waqf offered in small units to the public has no precedent to follow. How should such an instrument be designed to satisfy capital-market regulation, charity law and Shariah at the same time, including the distinction between a temporary cash waqf and qard hasan, and what should properly happen if an offering is under- or oversubscribed? An unresolved question, with a documented case to study.
Hijri-Aligned Livestock & Dairy Research
How can breeding, lambing, milk production and Qurbani supply respond to the moving Hijri calendar? Proposed controlled research would compare flock-management alternatives, animal performance, nutrition and welfare. Feed interventions, including hydroponic fodder supplementation, would be considered where researchers identify a relevant constraint.
True-Cost Economics & Replication
What does the proposed system really cost, and under what conditions could it work elsewhere? Measure labour, feed, utilities, infrastructure, maintenance and partner resources. Distinguish pilot cash expenditure, in-kind economic costs and standalone replication costs, then use measured data to test alternatives before scaling.
Future Female Awqaf Leadership
How can women, particularly those from disadvantaged communities and women with disabilities, progress into responsible awqaf leadership? Explore research, postgraduate and accredited vocational pathways that build practical competence, management capability and governance knowledge through supervised experience and demonstrated performance.
🧠 Why generative AI, specifically
Improving utilisation is a search problem. A single sacrificial animal yields a dozen by-products (hide, wool, bone, tallow, offal, milk), and each has several possible processing routes, markets, seasons and regulatory conditions, across more than sixty countries. The combinations run into the thousands, and no volunteer team can search them. Generative AI can propose and rank those routes, draft and stress-test the models, and carry a single finding into five languages and into animation for those who do not read them. What it cannot do is verify. Every route it proposes must still be tested against fiqh, against halal and food-safety regulation, and against real farm economics, which is precisely what these research tracks exist to do.
A proposed programme (2027–2030). Tracks are filled by open recruitment against published criteria. All figures are Awqaf New Zealand's own estimates, submitted for independent examination. No agreement has yet been concluded with any university; partners will be named once agreements are signed.