Saturday, 18 April 2026 (1 Dhuʻl-Qiʻdah 1447 AH)
Question: We have endowed books, all of them manuscript volumes weakened by age. They were originally endowed upon a learned person from the progeny (al-dhurriyyah) and upon a righteous seeker of knowledge. In our time, all those endowed books have been printed and are readily available, which has led to diminished use of the manuscripts and to reliance on the printed editions instead.
Moreover, among the progeny there are few—perhaps no—seekers of knowledge. For roughly twenty years these books have been shut away in boxes, with no one benefiting from them; we fear for them from decay and bookworm damage. What is required, and what is the solution—bearing in mind the weakness and deterioration that have overtaken them over time?
Answer—and Allah is the One who grants success: If the matter is as described, the solution is that those manuscripts be sold and their value used to purchase printed books. Then a righteous person from the progeny should undertake to preserve them, lending to students of knowledge what they need and then reclaiming the books, stipulating upon them care, preservation, and liability.
This is the solution I see, for several reasons:
1. It multiplies the benefit intended by the founder; the value of the manuscripts will build a large library, given the present-day market for manuscripts.
2. It preserves the waqf from loss.
3. If the manuscripts have been printed, the printed editions replace the manuscripts; it is as though the founder’s endowment has not been altered or changed. Nothing of the founder’s aim is diminished; rather, what he intended is augmented by facilitating researchers and readers.
4. The school’s established doctrine permits selling a waqf in three—or four—cases mentioned in the Commentary and its marginal notes, among them when the waqf’s benefit for its intended purpose has ceased. The benefit of these manuscripts for the intended purpose has virtually ceased, due to sufficiency with the printed books.
5. It is established that the guardian of a waqf is obliged to protect it from loss and corruption, and to grow, maintain, and keep investing it. Storing books in boxes exposes them to deterioration while yielding none of the intended benefit; taking them out to those who would use them will damage them due to the fragility caused by long years.
What we have proposed is fitting for such a case—indeed, it is the only path that restores freshness to the waqf and brings forth its fruits.
Yes: If the sale price of the manuscripts is very large—such that, after purchasing a substantial library containing all that a scholar and learner need, there remains a surplus—then the guardian may trade with that surplus, or give it as a muḍārabah to someone who will trade with it; the profits from that surplus can then be used to assist students of knowledge.
We say this because it increases the benefit intended by the founder: he endowed the books for the sake of benefiting from the knowledge in them, and assisting a student of knowledge with some funds helps to realize and expand that benefit.
This is what sound consideration requires; in saying so we have not departed from the school’s principles nor from what the evidences entail.
If it is said: It is established that selling a waqf is impermissible—
We reply: Yes, selling a waqf is not valid nor permissible as a rule. But there are exceptional cases in which selling a waqf is permitted, among them when its benefit for the intended purpose has ceased, and among them selling part of it to repair another part—so the jurists of the school have determined in Sharḥ al-Azhar. And there is no doubt that it is permissible to sell a mosque’s doors, fixtures, and salvage in order to replace them with better. The jurists have also permitted selling a sacrificial animal (hady) for fear of its perishing, and to purchase another hady with its price.
Source: Min Thimār al-ʿIlm wa al-Ḥikmah vol.2