Endowment: Selling a Non-Productive Endowed Orchard to Fulfill Bequest Duties
Practical Laws of Islam as per the teachings of Imam Khamenei
Endowment: Selling a Non-Productive Endowed Orchard to Fulfill Bequest Duties
English:
Question #1978:
A person directed in his will that his orchard should be assigned as an endowment for fifty years where the returns should be used in hiring someone to say prayers and perform fasts on his behalf. He further instructed that after the lapse of the first fifty-year period, the endowment should pay for charity work during the celebrations of the Night of Qadr (destiny) of Ramadan. The trustees of the will are the man’s four sons. Since the orchard has fallen into a state of disrepair and can hardly yield anything, can his sons sell the property and use the proceeds to hire someone to perform 200 years of prayer and fasting on deceased’s behalf?
Answer #1978:
The way the endowment trust has been set up could have two implications. If the donor meant to make use of the endowment for himself and others consecutively, it is void insofar as the deceased is concerned; as for the others, it should be deemed an endowment effective from a later time, whose validity is not clear-cut. If the intention of the deceased was to make it waqf with the exclusion that the income generated by the endowment for fifty years is to be used for himself, there is no legal objection to deeming it shar‘ī and valid. Assuming the validity of the endowment, as long as it is feasible to maintain the orchard in good condition to spend the income it generates in the avenues described in the will and endowment deed — even by spending some of the returns for its upkeep and repairs so that it carries on generating revenue, or by leasing the land for building or any other purpose — and spending the money in the avenues described in the will and endowment deed, it is not permissible to sell or change it. Otherwise, there is no objection to selling it [the orchard] and buying property that can generate income to be spent in the avenues of the will and endowment deed.
-Imam Khamenei, Practical Laws of Islam, Importance and Conditions of Endowments