Endowment: Compensation for State-Appropriated Endowment Land
Practical Laws of Islam as per the teachings of Imam Khamenei
Endowment: Compensation for State-Appropriated Endowment Land
English:
Question #2020:
Some plots of endowed land were in a site that was appropriated by the state for a development project to build new roads, state buildings, and public parks. The appropriation was made without the permission of the shar‘ī trustee and without compensation. Is this permissible?
Can one conclude that the party benefiting from these lands should be made to compensate the price of the lands and the proceeds that would otherwise have accrued from them? Is it obligatory that the permission of the authorized religious authority be sought to pay the compensation or allocate other lands in replacement of the appropriated ones? And finally is it permissible for the Endowments Office or the shar‘ī trustee to agree on the amount of compensation, without losing sight of the interest of the endowment?
Answer #2020:
No one has the right to make use of the endowment without the permission of the shar‘ī trustee. Nor should anyone have control over an income-generating property of endowment, before it has been leased from the shar‘ī trustee. It is not permissible to sell or exchange the endowment — utilizable for the purpose it has been donated — for another. Should someone damage the endowed property, the perpetrator has to stand to pay compensation.
Should anyone make use of the endowment without permission o the shar‘ī trustee, they have to pay an equitable rent. Such payments should be made to the shar‘ī trustee who should spend it in the avenues identified in the endowment deed. In doing so, there is no difference between a person, establishment, or government department. It is permissible for the trustee of the endowment, without approaching the authorized religious authority , to agree with the party currently making use of the trust, or that which has caused damage/loss to it, the amount of rent or compensation provided that it is in the interest of the endowment.
-Imam Khamenei, Practical Laws of Islam, Importance and Conditions of Endowments