whatever is immediately before them in the house they share. Some jurists, however, have said that so long as the couple live together none of these transfers takes legal effect except what is manifestly owned by the giver—such as the right to lodging, personal service, and similar benefits.

Whoever gives a charitable donation or bestows a gift and then sells it before the beneficiary has taken possession of it is subject to the following ruling: if the beneficiary was aware of the sale, the sale stands and the price belongs to him; but if he was absent and unaware, the sale is void so long as the donor-seller is still alive, and the property reverts to the beneficiary if he so demands. If the donor dies before the beneficiary learns of the sale, then—according to the view of Ashhab mentioned earlier in the chapter on gifts—the sale stands and the beneficiary is entitled to neither the price nor anything else.

It is disliked for someone who donates the forthcoming fruit of his date-palms, vineyard, or the like to oblige the beneficiary to water or treat the trees before the fruit appears, for one cannot know what the yield will be.

When a man donates to another the produce of his trees for a specified number of years, or residence in a house for a fixed period, or the rental income of a shop for certain years or months, the owner of the underlying property is barred from selling it until he has fulfilled for the beneficiary what he promised. Once the appointed term arrives, judgment is given in favor of the beneficiary; but if the owner of the principal asset dies beforehand, the donation lapses.

If a charitable gift is placed in the hands of an agent who holds it on behalf of the beneficiary, the death of either party does not impair the gift; whenever the beneficiary claims it, it is awarded to him—unless the donor has stipulated to the agent that he must not hand it over without the donor’s express permission. In that case the transfer is impermissible, the charity is null, and the property reverts to the donor’s heirs.

If someone entrusts money to a man so that he may distribute it among the poor or spend it in one of the avenues of God’s cause, and the donor dies before the trustee disburses it, the ruling is this: if the donor had summoned witnesses for the trustee, the latter carries out the donor’s instruction after his death; if no witnesses were called, the money returns to the heirs—and to each of the parents