Al-Qādī, however, interpreted al-Maymūnī’s report as follows:

“Endowing dirhams and dinars is not valid, according to what al-Khiraqī reported. Ahmad said, in al-Maymūnī’s report: ‘If someone endows a thousand dirhams in Allah’s cause and for the needy, no zakat is due on them. But if he endows them for horses and weapons, this is a matter of uncertainty and ambiguity.’”

Al-Qādī said: “He did not mean endowing the dirhams themselves. Rather, he meant bequeathing a thousand dirhams to be spent on horses in Allah’s cause, and he withheld judgment on the validity of this bequest.”

Abū Bakr said: “This is because the maintenance of the horses and weapons is the responsibility of whoever endowed them. It appears that he was uncertain where these dirhams should be spent if maintaining the horses and weapons was the responsibility of their owners.”

The former interpretation is more sound, because the question explicitly states that he endowed the thousand dirhams, not that he bequeathed them to take effect after his death. Had he bequeathed money to be spent on horses endowed by someone else, that would have been permissible without dispute, just as it would be permissible to bequeath funds for the upkeep of a mosque built by someone else.

The assertion that maintaining the horses and weapons is the responsibility of whoever endowed them is not accepted as the apparent position of the school. Rather, if the donor has stipulated funds for their maintenance, those funds are used; otherwise, their maintenance is paid from the public treasury, as with other endowments serving public purposes, such as mosques. If no one can be found to provide for an endowed asset’s upkeep, it is sold; the donor is not obliged to maintain it.

Moreover, Ahmad withheld judgment on whether zakat was due, not on whether endowing the money was valid, for that was what he had been asked about. His position is that when an endowment benefits a specific group, such as the descendants of a particular person, zakat is due on the endowed assets themselves. Thus, if someone endows forty sheep for the descendants of a particular person, zakat is due on the flock itself, according to his explicit statement. This is also Mālik’s position.

In Muhannā’s report, he said concerning someone who endows land or sheep in Allah’s cause: “Neither zakat nor the agricultural tithe is due from him: this is devoted to Allah’s cause. Those dues apply only if he dedicates it to his relatives.”