Section

Priority is given to the founder’s stipulations concerning distribution, the order of precedence, supervision, the term of any lease, and similar matters. Should he remain silent, the beneficiaries are treated equally, and oversight devolves upon them, each according to his allotted share.

Anyone who endows his property first to his children and then to the poor thereby includes all his sons and daughters equally, then the sons of his sons generation after generation, but not the children of his daughters. (1) The same applies when he dedicates it to his “progeny,” “offspring,” or “posterity”; descendants through the female line are excluded unless that is expressly stated or clearly implied. (2)

If he endows it upon his “sons” or “the sons of so-and-so,” the grant is confined to the males among them, unless they constitute a single tribe. But if he designates his “relatives,” “household,” or “people,” the waqf embraces both males and females drawn from his own children as well as from the children of his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. (3)

When the waqf is made in favor of persons who can be individually enumerated, they must all be included and treated alike; where they cannot be fully counted, preference—or even limiting the benefit to one person—is permissible.

A waqf is a binding contract that may neither be revoked nor sold unless its intended benefits have ceased because of ruin or the like—even in the case of a mosque. In such a situation, the sale proceeds must be spent on an equivalent replacement. Any surplus fittings—such as equipment or prayer mats—may be transferred to another mosque or donated in charity. (4)