fulfilling a debt is obligatory, whereas an endowment is recommended; and a recommended act cannot override an obligation.
However, if he establishes an endowment contingent upon a particular description, and the endower subsequently acquires that description—for example, if he says, “This is an endowment for students of knowledge or for the poor,” and then himself becomes a student of knowledge or poor—then it is valid, because he did not initially establish it as an endowment for himself.
“It is stipulated, with regard to anything other than a mosque and the like, that it be for a specified recipient capable of ownership—not for an inanimate object, an animal, an unborn child, or a grave. Neither its acceptance nor removing it from his possession is required.”
His statement, “It is stipulated, with regard to anything other than a mosque and the like, that it be for a specified recipient capable of ownership”: this is the third condition. Thus, it is stipulated that it be for a specified recipient capable of ownership.
His statement, “other than a mosque,” includes a library, books, and the like.
By his statement, “and the like,” he means public causes, such as the poor, students of knowledge, combatants in Allah’s cause, and the like. If it is designated for a cause, it is not stipulated that the endowment beneficiary be specified and capable of ownership. Rather, this is stipulated where it is not designated for a public cause: that it be for a specified recipient capable of ownership. Thus, if he endows this house for a mosque, with its income to be spent on the mosque’s needs, the recipient is specified but incapable of ownership. If he endows it for the poor, they are not specified, but they are capable of ownership. Yet we stipulate that the beneficiary be both specified and capable of ownership.
Accordingly, an endowment for a cause incapable of ownership is unobjectionable, and an endowment for a public cause—even if it is capable of ownership—is likewise unobjectionable.
His statement, “that it be for a specified recipient”: its opposite is an unspecified recipient. Thus, if he says, “This is an endowment for Zayd or Amr,” or “for one of these two men,” then the endowment