If the founder does not appoint an administrator for the waqf, or appoints one who then dies, its supervision passes to the beneficiaries themselves—so long as they are individually named. When the waqf is dedicated to a public cause, such as mosques, or to a class that cannot be fully enumerated, like the poor, oversight belongs to the ruler, who may manage it personally or delegate someone to do so.

The administrator must fear Allah and exercise sound stewardship over the waqf, for it is a trust with which he has been entrusted.

When a waqf is created for the founder’s own children, sons and daughters share equally. The endowment makes them partners, and partnership—left unrestricted—entails equal entitlement. This is comparable to an outright acknowledgment of ownership in their favor, which would likewise be divided equally. After the founder’s immediate children, the waqf then transfers to the children of his sons, not to the children of his daughters, because those grandchildren are traced to another man—their father—and, according to one view, are not included in Allah’s words, “Allah instructs you concerning your children” (4:11). Some scholars, however, maintain that they are included in the term awlād (“children”), for the daughters themselves are included, and therefore their offspring are truly the founder’s grandchildren. Allah knows best.

If he states, “This is a waqf for my abnāʾ (sons),” or “for the sons of so-and-so,” the endowment is confined to the males, for the word banīn in its primary usage denotes sons alone, as in Allah’s saying, “Or does He have daughters while you have sons?” (52:39). Should the beneficiaries be a tribe—such as Banu Hāshim or Banu Tamīm—women are also included, because a tribal name embraces both males and females.

Nevertheless, when the waqf is made for a group whose members can be individually counted, it must be distributed to every one of them.