Paper short abstract:

The paper is concerned with the manner in which Indonesian Islamic welfare organisations organise the work routines of their employees and everyday activities of their poor beneficiaries with a view to make time pass, hastening the arrival of the future while forecasting its basic contours.

Paper long abstract:

Development interventions aimed at poverty alleviation and religious metaphysics concerning salvation share the same temporal orientation, one privileging the future at the expense of the present and the past. Based on long term fieldwork in Indonesia, the paper is concerned with the manner in which Islamic charitable organisations organise much of the work routines of their employees, and everyday activities of their poor beneficiaries and donors alike with a view to make time pass, hastening the arrival of the future while foretelling and forecasting its basic contours. A key dimension of the time work accomplished relates to the institutionalisation of motivational sessions undertaken with the explicit aim of unlocking the potential located in the future for purposes of attaining prosperity both in this life and the next. Within such context, the paper pays particular attention to the rise to public prominence of the 'mathematics of alms giving', a time governance and good fortune generation technique that encourages poor and rich alike to divide their property up and spread it around. Such 'generosity' is held to miraculously effectuate a time of plenty, ensuring the gift's eventual return in multiplied value in the not-too-distant future. The convergence of neoliberal standards and Islamist visions such time device supports, find political expression in the movement for the creation of an Indonesian ekonomi Islam, itself based on a new generation of pious Muslim entrepreneurs, easy accessibility to syariah-compliant credit, and the proliferation of training opportunities in business subjects and religious disciplines.