acts of obedience, such as vows, the thing vowed must itself be an act of obedience. If it is merely permissible, fulfilling the vow is not obligatory. However, there is a well-known disagreement among scholars over whether expiation is obligatory for such a vow, just as they disagree over expiation for a vow to commit a sin. A vow to commit a sin must not be fulfilled, whereas someone who vows to do something permissible may choose whether or not to fulfil it. The same applies to endowments.

The ruling on conditions attached to an endowment can be understood by considering two principles:

The founder establishes endowments for after his death solely to benefit from their reward and recompense with Allah, not to derive worldly benefit from them. After death, the deceased benefits only from reward and recompense. Hence, a distinction is drawn between arrangements that may be intended to secure worldly benefit and those intended solely to earn reward and recompense.

The former include sales, leases, and marriage. A person may spend his wealth on these to achieve permissible worldly aims, as well as commendable and religious aims, but not forbidden ones. As for an endowment, he may devote his property only to something that benefits him in his religion. For if he devotes it to something that brings him no religious benefit—and he derives no worldly benefit from the endowment after his death—he will have given away wealth without receiving any benefit in either his religious or worldly affairs. This is not permissible.

For this reason, scholars distinguish between an endowment for a particular individual and one devoted to a cause. If someone establishes an endowment or makes a bequest for a particular individual, it is permissible even if the recipient is a protected non-Muslim subject, because showing kindness to him is sanctioned by the revealed Law. This is indicated by the Quran and Sunnah, as in Allah’s words:

“Keep their company in this world with kindness,”

and in the hadith of