Its merit lies in the fact that a waqf is the finest of the charities Allah has urged upon His servants, for it is a continuous and enduring charity.

Such merit is only realized when the endowment is sound in Sharʿī terms: undertaken purely to seek Allah’s Face and directed toward recognized avenues of righteousness—building mosques, supporting beneficial knowledge, calling people to Allah, financing charitable projects, spending on relatives, the poor and the destitute, and helping the pious to obey Allah.

If, however, a person sets up an endowment merely to prevent his children and heirs from selling the property, that arrangement is not granted the spiritual status of a waqf in terms of reward and virtue, even though many jurists still deem it legally binding.

The same applies when an individual, burdened by debt, freezes his property as a waqf to keep it from being sold to satisfy rightful creditors; or when he endows it solely for his children, showing favoritism—granting some, depriving others, or preferring certain heirs without a valid Sharʿī reason. Such an arrangement likewise earns no reward or virtue associated with a waqf, though many jurists would still consider it irrevocable. In reality, it moves from the realm of benevolence to the realm of injustice, for it is not in accordance with Allah’s will.

Whatever is introduced without Allah’s authorization is rejected and unacceptable.

A proper waqf is an act of kindness and beneficence toward its beneficiaries—whether because they are relatives, because of their need, or because the community needs them. For the founder it is an everlasting charity; its reward continues to reach him after his deeds have ceased and his hopes have ended with his departure from this world to the next.

Allah the Exalted says, “Indeed, We give life to the dead and record what they have sent ahead and their traces, and We have enumerated everything in a clear register” (Yā Sīn 36:12).