Moreover, an endowment made for Allah’s sake combines features of emancipation and the transfer of ownership. It more closely resembles the case of a slave woman who has borne her master’s child, according to those who prohibit transferring ownership of her.

Insofar as no one may sell endowed property and retain the proceeds as his own, give it away, or pass it on by inheritance, it resembles emancipation and manumission. Insofar as it can be exchanged for compensation, which is then used to purchase something to take its place, it resembles the transfer of ownership. For if endowed property is destroyed, compensation must be paid for it, and the proceeds used to purchase a replacement, as scholars generally hold. This differs from an emancipated slave, who has become free and can no longer be exchanged for compensation.

The kind of sale permitted for property under unrestricted ownership is never permitted for endowed property: namely, for its owner, his guardian, or his agent to sell it and take ownership of the proceeds without providing a substitute to take its place. This is the kind of sale mentioned alongside gifts and inheritance, as Umar ibn al-Khattāb said concerning his endowment: “It is not to be sold, given away, or inherited.”

A comparable case is that Umar ibn al-Khattāb and Uthmān ibn Affān—may Allah be pleased with them both—designated land conquered by force, such as the land of al-Sawād and elsewhere, as communal property for the Muslims. They did not distribute any land conquered by force. Because they prohibited purchasing such land, lest a Muslim submit to humiliation—for the land tax is akin to the jizya—or the Muslims’ rights be nullified, some scholars supposed that they prohibited its sale because it was an endowment and endowments cannot be sold. They claimed that this entailed that land in Mecca could not be sold, since Mecca had been conquered by force.

This is mistaken. Land subject to the land tax which was conquered by force and designated as communal property may be given away and inherited: it passes from its holder to his heir, and its holder may give it away. This is not possible with endowed property.

If such land is sold to someone who takes the seller’s place with respect to it and changes nothing, then this is a matter in which the rulings of Islamic law attach to the specific properties themselves, whereas in other matters they attach to the category rather than the individual item. Its land tax is therefore paid, so this causes no harm to its rightful beneficiaries, nor does it extinguish their right to it.