Fifth: When a waqf is established for a specific person or group, each beneficiary must already hold a legally recognized estate, for a waqf is a transfer of ownership. It is therefore invalid to endow property to someone who owns nothing—such as a deceased person or an animal.

Sixth: The waqf must take effect immediately. A temporary or suspended waqf is invalid, except when the founder explicitly makes it contingent upon his own death. In that case it is permitted, as when he says, “When I die, my house is to be endowed to the poor.” Abū Dāwūd records that ʿUmar (d. 23 AH) instructed: “If anything happens to me, then the land of Samʿāʾ is charity.” This was widely publicized and met with no objection, becoming a point of consensus. A waqf postponed until death is treated as a bequest and must therefore be funded from no more than one-third of the estate.

Among the rulings of waqf is that the conditions set by the founder must be observed so long as they do not conflict with the Sacred Law, in accordance with the Prophet’s saying, “Muslims are bound by their conditions, except a condition that makes the unlawful lawful or the lawful unlawful.” ʿUmar established a waqf and attached two conditions to it. Hence, if the founder stipulates that certain beneficiaries take precedence over others, that they be grouped together, that the beneficiary must (or must not) possess a particular attribute, that oversight of the waqf rest with a designated person, or any similar clause, his stipulation is binding so long as it does not contradict the Qur’an or the Sunnah.

If he sets no conditions, all those named in the waqf share equally—rich and poor, male and female alike.