Endowment: Scope of Authority of a Court-Appointed Waqf Supervisor

Practical Laws of Islam as per the teachings of Imam Khamenei

Endowment: Scope of Authority of a Court-Appointed Waqf Supervisor

English:

Question #2003:

The court appointed a person to oversee the work of the trustee of an endowment who was accused of negligence in running the endowment. After the trustee had been exonerated, and since passed away, has the supervisor the right to have a say in the decisions and actions taken by the deceased trustee, especially when such decisions and actions were taken years before the appointment of the supervisor? Is it right to say that the remit of his responsibility should be confined to the period between the date of the court appointment and the date the trustee died? Since no action was taken by the court to relieve the supervisor of his responsibility after passing judgment proving the innocence of the trustee, should he relinquish his responsibility from the date of the judgment, or should this hinge on the order of the court?

Answer #2003:

If the appointment of the supervisor alongside the official trustee was because he was charged with negligence in his duties to run the trust, he should have no right to meddle in or express any opinion about anything outside the remit of his responsibility. His authority as overseer of the work of the accused trustee should have come to an end with the passing of the sentence of exoneration. Furthermore, in view of the death of the previous trustee, and transfer of trusteeship to someone else, the said supervisor should no longer have right to interfere in the running of the trust. Nor has he the right to oversee the work of the new trustee.

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