a mosque and said to the people, “Pray.” As for one who builds a prayer area beside his orchard, and people begin coming and praying there, this does not indicate that it is an endowment. But if he builds a mosque—that is, in the form of a mosque—and says to the people, “Pray in it,” then it is an endowment even if he does not say, “I have endowed it,” because this act indicates it. Even if he intends otherwise, it is still an endowment, given the strength of this indication.

If he says, “I intended it to be a loan for use,” we say: “In that case, you must write: ‘I have lent this place to the people so that they may pray in it; whenever I need it, I may take it back.’” This must be done; otherwise, it becomes an endowment.

His statement, “or a graveyard, and he permits burial therein,” means that he encloses his land as a graveyard, without writing on its gate that it is a graveyard or stating in the deed that it is a graveyard, and then says to the people: “Whoever wishes to bury a deceased person there may do so.” In this case, we say that the land has become a graveyard—that is, an endowment for the Muslims—and he cannot take it back.

Yes, if he wishes to lend land for burial, then he must write that he has lent this land for burial. If he lends it for burial, he may not take it back until the deceased has decomposed, because an essential consequence of granting permission for burial is that the deceased remain buried and treated with due respect. Thus, the grave may not be exhumed unless the body has decomposed.

This act—namely, making land into a mosque or a graveyard—may fall under one of three cases:

The first is that he intends by this that it become a mosque or a graveyard. It then becomes so, and there is no issue in that.

The second is that he intends the opposite of this—for example, by intending, in making it a mosque or