The donor stipulating that a portion of the income from the Waqf is to be given to the one who recites Surah Al-Fatihah or a Juz’ of the Qur’an dedica
Matters related to the validity of Waqf
Fatwa no.
15943
All praise be to Allah alone and peace and blessings upon the one after whom there shall be no prophets.The Permanent Committee for Scholarly Research and Ifta’ has read the question sent to His Eminence, the Chairman, by the head of the High Court in Al-Mubaraz, which was forwarded to the committee from the General Secretary of the Council of Senior Scholars as letter no. 347 on 1/20/1413. The text of the question is as follows: I am attaching copies of two documents: no. 162 dated 6/23/1356 A.H. and no. 715 dated 10/7/1390 A.H., that were issued by this court concerning a Waqf (endowment) of some real estate. One of the conditions of the Waqf is the recitation of a specific Surah from the Qur’an and two Juz’s (30ths of the Qur’an) every day. The Wakil (legally accountable person who acts on behalf of another for a specific permissible matter) says that he cannot fulfill this condition stipulated by the Waqf donor, (Part No. 16; Page No. 148) because he does not have enough time to do it, so he has abandoned it and is asking for a Fatwa (legal opinion issued by a qualified Muslim scholar). Is there a substitute for this condition? Is it permissible for him to hire someone to do this for him? Was it sinful for him to abandon the recitation in the past? I hope that you will advise us, may peace be upon you!
After studying the Fatwa request, the committee answered:
If
the donor made it conditional that a portion of the income from the Waqf is to be given to the one who recites Surah Al-Fatihah or a Juz’ of the Qur’an and dedicates the reward for it to the dead or for him and for others, this is not a Shar‘y (Islamically lawful) way, because the reward for reciting the Qur’an cannot to be dedicated to the dead, since no Nas (Islamic text from the Qur’an or the Sunnah) has been reported confirming this. This is according to the sounder of the two views maintained by the scholars. Therefore, the stated condition is not considered to be a lawful channel of spending the income from a Waqf; therefore, the portion of the money that was dedicated for this purpose can be given to charitable schools that teach memorization of the Qur’an, as this will be nearer to the intention of the donor, and an act that is akin to it in type. May Allah grant us success. May peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family, and Companions.
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