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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Jurisprudence Made Easy Dialogue on religious endowments I started today’s session by asking my father about certain phenomenon I often notice in mosques, holy shrines, and some buildings and amenities. It is to do with the phrase “waqf, or endowment”, I see inscribed or written on the buildings themselves or on pieces of furniture therein, and sometimes on copies of the Holy Qur’an. What does this phrase mean?

●Any person can provide such things you have just mentioned and other things by way of endowment. If this is done according to shar’ie rules, the object declared as waqf shall come out from the ownership of the person who made the endowment and be used for the purposes designated in the endowment, that could be public or private. The endowment fund or property cannot be bequeathed or sold, except in certain circumstances.

The person creating the endowment could appoint a trustee to carry out the affairs of the endowment trust according to the deed of waqf. * Does waqf have a particular mechanism? - No, suppose a person built a place for public worship, not necessarily looking like a traditional mosque building, intending it to be a mosque, then it shall be deemed thus. However, there are general rules that should be satisfied to make a waqf viable: 1.

Continuity and permanence, in that waqf shall not be in order, if the person dedicated the endowment appointed a limited period for it to run through. * Could you expand on that? - Suppose you make an endowment whereby you put your house at the disposal of poor people, to live in for a year; this cannot be recognized as waqf. 2. The person who made the endowment should not be the exclusive beneficiary, or among other beneficiaries, of the endowment.

* What about a person giving the right of disposal over his property, by way of endowment, to a given person, his children, or relatives, for example? - The endowment shall be in order, provided it is enforced at the time it was made, because private endowments should exchange hands on the spot, i.e. the donor must part with the property for the beneficiaries forthwith. * Who should take charge of a public endowment? - The viability of a public endowment is not contingent on a particular date.

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