shall give the donor some determinate thing in return for the gift (AA.). The gift transaction (hibah) is complete when the donee has accepted it and taken possession of the gift. It is not allowed to a person to revoke the hibah when it has been accepted by the donee (Bu. 51:30). While a will is allowed only to the extent of one-third of the property, no such limitation exists on hibah, because in this case the owner divests himself of all rights in the property immediately, while in the case of a will, not the owner but the heirs are deprived.
Waqafa means literally he was, or became, still or stationary or he continued standing (LL.), and in law waqf is “the settlement in perpetuity of the usufruct of any property for the benefit of individuals or for a religious or charitable purpose” (AA.). Subject to conditions already noted, and those which follow, an owner of property has a right to make his property waqf, or dedicate it to a particular purpose. In Bukhārī the ḥadīth relating to waqf are given in the book of Waṣāya (Wills), though the two differ in many respects. Waqf, like gift, takes effect immediately while the will takes effect after the death of the testator, and it differs from both, gift and will, inasmuch as the property which is dedicated remains untouched, not being the property of a particular person, and it is only the income drawn from it that is spent on the particular objects specified in the waqf deed. Many cases of waqf are reported in Ḥadīth. Abū Talḥah created a waqf, the income from which was to be spent on his poor relatives (aqārib), and this was done under the Holy Prophet’s direction (Bu. 55:10). From this it is evident that a man can create a waqf for the benefit of his own relatives. It is made clear in another ḥadīth that a man’s son or his wife falls within the definition of his relatives (Bu. 55:11). The man who creates a waqf is allowed to draw from it, for he himself may be its manager (mutawalli) as well as anybody else, even though this be not stated in the waqf deed (Bu. 55:12). Another ḥadīth states that ‘Umar created a waqf in accordance with the directions of the Holy Prophet in favour of the poor as well as his rich relatives (Bu. 55:29). There are other instances on record in which a waqf was created for the benefit of the poor as well as the