What is The Ruling on Neglecting an Endowment?

Uploaded Jan 14, 2024

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Question

This questioner is asking about a Waqf (an endowment) for the sake of Allah from the time of his ancestors. He says: I was taking care of it until 1991. Then, I moved away from it because of a job. Now I am far away from it, unable to take care of the required work and spend what comes out of the endowment on the poor. So, now it is abandoned without work, please inform me about that, and thank you.

Sheikh Ibn Uthaymeen

It’s not permissible to neglect this endowment. Rather, it is the duty of the one in charge of the endowment if he cannot look after it, that he should assign it to a trustworthy, proficient person. (This is done) so that he can take care of it, and make the spendings according to the conditions of the Waaqif (the one who made the endowment) without violating the Shari’ah (Islamic legislation). But if he does not find anyone to do it, he should go to a Shar’i (Islamic) court to receive permission to sell it and transfer it to a place where he can take care of it, if the court approves of that.

Additional references

The Series of Fatwas of Noor ‘Ala Al-Darb for his eminence the scholar Sheikh Muhammad Ibn Ibn Uthaymeen Tape: 1 Fatwa: 6