Endowment: Collective Trusteeship and Gender Distribution in a Family Endowment

Practical Laws of Islam as per the teachings of Imam Khamenei

Endowment: Collective Trusteeship and Gender Distribution in a Family Endowment

English:

Question #2015:

A person endowed all his property for holding assemblies commemorating the martyrdom of Imam Ḥusayn (A). In the event of his death, he directed that his sons, and their descendants after them, should be the trustees of the endowment. He further instructed that one third of the profit of the property be allocated to the trustee of the endowment. If, at any stage, there were children, male and female, of the first, second, and third generations, can they collectively be deemed trustees? Assuming that the trusteeship of the endowment is vested in them, should the distribution be equal among both the sexes?

Answer #2015:

In the absence of any indication in the context that the pecking order among the inheritors be respected, i.e. the older generation should take precedence over the younger one, all the generations, at any given time, should collectively and equally be trustees, and one third of the profit is divided among them equally irrespective of whether they are male or female.

-Imam Khamenei, Practical Laws of Islam, Importance and Conditions of Endowments