Whether an endowment is likened to a reward for completing a task, wages, or a stipend, the worker is obliged to perform the work only when he receives what was stipulated for him. And Allah knows best.

He—may Allah have mercy on him—was asked:

A man established an endowment for a mosque and for shrouding the dead. He stipulated that its administration should pass to the most capable of his heirs, then to the next most capable, and thereafter to the judge. He stipulated six dirhams for the mosque’s imam, and six dirhams for the muezzin and the caretaker of the burial ground. He also stipulated two houses for the two men to live in.

The endowment’s revenue subsequently increased fivefold, with no need to increase expenditure on shrouds. The judge therefore allocated thirty dirhams a month to the two men. Afterwards, however, he learned of the founder’s stipulations and hesitated to pay them anything beyond the respective amounts stipulated by the founder. Is he permitted to do so, and are the two men permitted to accept it?

Furthermore, the aforementioned house collapsed, and the endowment’s administrator leased it out for two dirhams a year. The tenant rebuilt it and rented it out for fifty dirhams a year. Is this lease arrangement valid?

He replied:

Yes, the imam and the muezzin may be paid, from an endowment with a surplus such as this, the customary stipend for people in comparable positions—[hal]—even if it exceeds thirty dirhams. Indeed, if they are poor and there is no designated use for the surplus, enough of it may be paid to them to meet their needs in full.

This is for two reasons: