WAQF

1. The word wakf ' (waqf) and its plural from awkaf are derived from Arabic root Verb “
waqafd", “ uqifu", “ waqfan" or “ ruqufa" which means “to stop”, or “ to hold” “ to keep”
or to prevent property from passing into the hands of a third person. In a religious
connotation, the term wakf means to protect and preserve the property in such a way that
(Asl) corpus remains intact but its usufruct is dedicated for charitable purposes in
perpetuity.
2. THE term “Wakf’ is defined in the Encyclopedia of Islam as ‘a thing which while
retaining its substance yields a usufruct and of which the owner has surrendered his
power of disposal with the stipulation that the yield is used for permitted good purposes. 1
It is observed in M Kazim vs A Asghar Ali2 that technically, it means dedication of some
specific property for a pious purpose or secession of pious purposes.
3. Muslim jurists such as Abu Hanifa, Wakf is the detention of a specific thing that is in the
ownership of the waqif or appropriator, and the devotion of its profits or usufructs to
charity, the poor, or other good objects, to accommodate loan.

ISSUES

 Whether the four annas, or rather the fourth share of the property which he appropriated
under that deed to his daughter Budrunnessa, is, under Mahomedan law, a valid " waqf,"
or, in other words, that it is inalienable and incapable of being attached and sold in
execution of a decree against Budrunnessa.

JUDGEMENT

1 Encyclopedia of Islam.
2 AIR 1932 11 Patna 238.
 ANALYSIS

In the following case the court is talked about the significance and meaning of the word ‘Waqf’
and is deciding that whether certain settlement amount given to the daughter would be
considered as waqf. waqf is ‘a thing which while retaining its substance yields a usufruct and of
which the owner has surrendered his power of disposal with the stipulation that the yield is used
for permitted good purposes.In the Judgement given by Justice Morris, first the view given by
Abu Hanifa who who an Sunori, to which sect the family of Golam Sharuff belong, was
considered through the Bombay High Court case Abdul Ganne Kasam v. Hussen Miya
Rahimtulla, in which it was stated that that "to constitute a valid waqf there must be a dedication
of the property solely to the worship of God, or to religious or charitable purposes." In the
present case it was seen that the appropriation in favour of Budrunnessa is not in the nature of a
charity. It is simply in the nature of a settlement upon the ¦daughter-a settlement of property
which was to be heritable and to be taken by Budrunnessa's descendants in certain shares. It was
against the principle underlying Waqf, which states that the ultimate applications of property, the
subject of "waqf," must be to objects which never become extinct, and those objects are all of a
religious and charitable character. Thus, this was not considered Waqf. Later the court discussed
the argument that appropriations in the nature of settlement of property upon a man and his
descendants have been treated by various exponents of Mahomedan law as legitimate
appropriations under the designation of "waqf." But these settlements are all under Mahomedan
law termed sadukah. But this argument was also turned down as it was clear from the situation
that the present appropriation falls outside the principle of "waqf." As explained in the case of
Abdul Ganne Kasam v. Russen Miya Rahimtulla, finally the court decided that it cannot be said
that Budrunnessa has received this property as a pauper. In both points of view, therefore, it
seems to us that this appropriation of a one-fourth share, or two annas out of eight annas of Lot
Kantabari, cannot be treated as a valid waqf. We, therefore, dismiss the appeal with costs.
 CONCLUSION

With the help of the following case we can say that the literal meaning of the word waqf is
‘detention’. In the legal context, waqf means detention of a property so that its produce or
income may always be available for religious or charitable purposes.