Endowment: Endowment of Grazing Land, Its Validity, Rent Assessment, and Changed Land Use
Practical Laws of Islam as per the teachings of Imam Khamenei
Endowment: Endowment of Grazing Land, Its Validity, Rent Assessment, and Changed Land Use
English:
Question #2057:
A person donated some grazing land by way of endowment for the sole benefit of the holy places. The trustee of the endowment leased part of the land to some people. Over the years, the tenants built residential houses and business properties on the land that was not suitable for pasture. They also developed the grazing land into arable land for crops and fruit trees.
a. In view of the fact that natural grazing lands are considered a kind of anfāl and public property, was the original endowment valid and can it still be so?
b. Since there has been a change of use and a development of the site which made it more attractive, how should one go about fixing the rent?
c. Since the grazing land has been developed into fully fledged groves and fields by the tenants themselves, should the tenants pay the same rent, i.e. that of grazing land, or should the rent be on a par with the existing state of the land?
Answer #2057:
After it has been established that the pasture was endowed, as long as it is not proved that the grazing land was a kind of anfāl at the time of setting up the endowment, and if the donor was the rightful owner of the land, setting it up as endowment is ruled correct and shar‘ī. Therefore, it cannot be stripped of its title as endowment by the mere fact that the tenants have turned it into fields, groves and residential property. Indeed, if they have secured the right of disposal over the land held in trust by way of leasing it from the shar‘ī trustee, it is obligatory on them to pay the rent agreed in the original lease contract. The trustee should spend the rent in the avenue specified in the endowment deed. Should putting the land at their disposal have been done without a proper permission from the shar‘ī trustee, the tenants are liable to pay an equitable rent for the duration they had actual control.
However, if, at the time of declaring the trust, the land was derelict or anfāl or the donor was not its rightful owner, the endowment is invalid. That which the holders of actual control have reclaimed of the land by virtue of developing it into fields, orchards, and residential houses for themselves in accordance with the laws and regulations is rightfully theirs. As for the remaining parts of the land that maintained its original state, i.e. remained derelict, it is considered part of the natural resources and anfāl. It should, therefore, be put at the disposal of the Islamic state.
-Imam Khamenei, Practical Laws of Islam, Importance and Conditions of Endowments