• Emancipating human beings (al-riqāb): freeing slaves and securing the release of captives.
• In Allah’s cause (fī sabīl Allāh): public projects that benefit the Muslim community, such as calling people to Allah, armed struggle in His cause, shelters, mosques, and similar facilities.
• The wayfarer (ibn al-sabīl): travelers who have been cut off from their homeland and their wealth, in whole or in part; they are given enough to reach home safely.
• The guest: honoring and treating him kindly. What is obligatory is one day and one night of hospitality, while the recommended minimum extends to three days.
16 – Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Saʿdī said: The condition that a waqf be an act of piety and nearness to Allah shows that endowing property for some heirs to the exclusion of others is forbidden and invalid.
17 – Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn stated: The scholars concur that money may only be spent on something that yields a benefit for religion or worldly life. A waqf brings its founder no worldly benefit; therefore, it can only benefit his religion when it is dedicated to an act of obedience to Allah Most High.
18 – He further said: The scholars agree that the conditions set by a waqf founder fall into two categories—valid and invalid—just like the stipulations in any other contract. Those jurists who declared, “The founder’s stipulations are like the Law-giver’s texts,” meant that they clarify intent, not that they must always be acted upon. In reality, the wording of anyone who swears an oath, writes a will, or enters into a contract is interpreted according to his customary manner of speech and the language he actually uses—whether classical Arabic, colloquial Arabic, non-standard Arabic, or a non-Arabic tongue, and whether or not it matches the language of the Law-giver—for the purpose of words is to convey the speaker’s intent. Hence, to understand the founder’s words we refer to his own language, custom, and habitual usage.
Ibn al-Qayyim said: The best way to understand the phrase “the founder’s wording is like that of the Law-giver” is that its general statements are restricted by its specific ones, and its unconditional statements are qualified by its conditioned ones, and that consideration is