Equal treatment among them, even when they cannot be fully enumerated—such as Banu Hashim or Banu Tamim—is not obligatory, for that is impossible in practice; the administrator may therefore limit distribution to some of them and even prefer certain members over others.

A waqf becomes a binding, irrevocable contract the moment it is pronounced. It may not be dissolved, in accordance with the Prophet’s statement, “Its principal must neither be sold, nor given as a gift, nor inherited.” Al-Tirmidhi said, “The scholars act on this ḥadith.”

Consequently, a waqf may not be revoked; it is perpetual, and its property may neither be sold nor bartered—unless all benefit has entirely vanished. Examples include a house that has collapsed and cannot be rebuilt from the waqf’s income, or farmland that has become barren and cannot be restored because the waqf yields no funds for its rehabilitation. In such cases the waqf property is sold and the proceeds used to purchase a similar asset, for that better realizes the founder’s purpose. If a complete equivalent cannot be found, the money is spent on something partially equivalent, and the substitute becomes waqf the moment it is bought.

If the waqf is a mosque that has fallen into disuse—its neighborhood, for instance, having been abandoned—it is sold and the price applied to another mosque. Likewise, when the revenue of a mosque’s waqf exceeds its needs, the surplus may be transferred to another mosque, for this remains within the very category for which it was endowed. Any remaining surplus may also be given as charity to the poor.

And if the endowment is made for a specific individual, as when the founder says, “This property is a waqf for Zayd; he shall receive…"