Binding of Waqf Treatment in Islamic Law

Waqf, is the one of the important surviving institutions in Islamic civilisation, was also one of the most discussed issues from the early ages of Hijra. Even though the discussion on Waqf were occasionally related to details of Waqf treatment, discussion on the essence of Waqf treatment also persisted for a long term. Presumably, the opener of the discussion was Shurayh (d. 78/697) the noted Qadi of Kufa with some narrations from Prophet Muhammad. The discussion had another dimension with Ebû Hanifa’s fatwa “waqf is not lazim (binding)”. With this fatwa, the cases on revoking of waqfs by founder and his successors started to come up. This situation revealed substantial problems for the continuation of this institution. Though Abu Yusuf and Imam Muhammad gave some fatwas to solve this problems, this issue was on the agenda for the centuries in the Islamic World, at last, in the Ottoman Period, it was aimed to be solved by adding to waqfyas “part of revoking”.