Book of Gifts

Transferring ownership without compensation is called a gift (hibah). If one transfers ownership to a needy person seeking reward in the Hereafter, it is charity (sadaqah). When the donor merely delivers the item to the recipient’s place in order to honor him, it is a present (hadīyah).

A hibah requires a verbal offer and a verbal acceptance. For a hadīyah, however, the correct view is that these formal utterances are unnecessary: it is enough that the donor sends the item and the recipient takes possession.

If the donor says, “I grant you lifetime possession of this house, and when you die it shall pass to your heirs,” the transaction counts as a gift. The same ruling—according to the new opinion—applies if he simply says, “I grant you lifetime possession.” Should he add, “and when you die it shall revert to me,” it is likewise treated as a gift according to the stronger view.

If he declares, “I give it to you as ruqbā,” or “I have made it yours on a ruqbā basis”—that is, if I die before you it returns to me, and if you die before me it becomes permanently yours—the school consistently retains the two Shāfiʿī opinions, the new and the old.

Everything that may lawfully be sold may also be given as a gift, whereas anything that may not be sold—such as an unidentified article, something usurped, or a stray animal—may not be gifted, apart from trifles like two grains of wheat and the like.

Gifting a debt to the debtor counts as a discharge; gifting it to anyone else is invalid according to the preponderant view. Ownership of the gift is not acquired until the donee takes possession with the donor’s permission. If one of the two dies between the gift and the taking of possession, his heir stands in his place; another view holds that the contract is thereby annulled.

It is recommended that a parent be fair in distributing gifts to his children by equalizing the shares of males and females, though another opinion apportions them according to their prospective shares of inheritance. The father—and, by the prevailing opinion, any other ascendant—may retract a gift he has made to a descendant. Retraction is conditional upon the gift’s remaining under the donee’s control; it is therefore barred if the donee sells it or dedicates it as waqf, but not if he pledges it, re-gifts it before taking possession, suspends its manumission, marries it off, cultivates it, or leases it, according to the school.

If the donor’s title has otherwise lapsed, he may only bring a claim, and retraction is not granted on the stronger view. If the item has increased, he may retract it together with any attached increment, but not with a detached one.

Retraction is effected if the donor says, “I have taken back what I gave,” “I have reclaimed it,” “I have returned it to my ownership,” or “I have annulled the gift.” It is not effected merely by his selling it or dedicating it as waqf.