Ghayat al-Bayan fi anna waqf al-ithnayn ala anfusihima waqf la waqfan
- Author died
- 1252 AH
- Editions
- T Istanbul
Ghayat al-Bayan fi anna waqf al-ithnayn ala anfusihima waqf la waqfan (The Utmost Clarification That an Endowment Made by Two Persons upon Themselves Is One Endowment, Not Two) is a Hanafi legal treatise authored by the Syrian jurist Ibn Abidin (d. 1252 AH / 1836 CE) . Completed on 1 Ramadan 1251 AH (1836 CE), the work examines the jurisprudence of joint endowments (waqf), addressing whether an endowment created jointly by two co-owners upon themselves and their descendants constitutes a single unified endowment or two distinct legal endowments .
Background and Composition
Ibn Abidin composed the treatise following a legal query sent to him from Tripoli (Tarabulus al-Sham) . More than a year after issuing his original response, the same question was returned to him accompanied by a contradictory fatwa from an unnamed respondent . That respondent had declared Ibn Abidin’s initial answer an evident error and demanded reliance strictly on transmitted rulings (nuqul) rather than rational derivation, citing discussions found in al-Fatawa al-Khayriyya by Khayr al-Din al-Ramli . In response, Ibn Abidin penned this treatise to expose the flaws in the respondent’s critique and to provide a detailed legal substantiation of his position .
Legal Case and Content
The core case discussed involved two full sisters who had appointed an agent to establish an endowment over their jointly owned property . Two-thirds (16 out of 24 shares) were designated for the two sisters during their lifetimes, and after them for their children and subsequent generations of descendants, with the stipulation that if one died leaving children, their share passed to their offspring, while if one died childless, their share would revert to whoever occupied their tier (darajah) . The remaining third (eight shares) was designated for their niece Hanifah bint Ali al-Imadi . The first sister died leaving children who assumed her share, while the second sister subsequently died without offspring . The legal dispute centered on whether the deceased second sister's share reverted to her sister’s children, to Hanifah, or to the poor .
The dissenting jurist argued that the endowment represented two separate endowments and that upon the extinction of the second sister's line, her portion should be diverted to the poor, drawing on an analysis from al-Fatawa al-Khayriyya . Ibn Abidin rejected this conclusion, arguing that:
- A joint declaration by two co-owners constitutes a single legal act (waqf wahid) rather than two separate ones, just as a joint gift (hibah) or lease (ijarah) made by two persons to a single recipient is treated as one valid transaction without violating the prohibition of undivided shares (musha') .
- The phrasing "then after both of them, unto their children" (thumma min ba'dihima fa-'ala awladihima) uses an annexed plural (jam' mudaf) that encompasses all children of both endowers collectively as a single subsequent class, rather than dividing them into distinct, independent endowments .
- The original ruling of al-Siraj al-Hanutiyi—which Khayr al-Din al-Ramli initially affirmed before raising his later objection—was the correct position .
- With the death of the second sister, the first generational tier (al-batn al-awwal) was fully extinguished, necessitating a re-division of the entire endowment among the second generational tier according to the foundational doctrine of Abu Bakr al-Khassaf, rather than transferring the share to the poor .
Reception and Publication
The treatise was incorporated into later collections of Ibn Abidin's legal treatises (Majmu'at Rasa'il Ibn Abidin) and published in Damascus in 1301 AH (1884 CE) and in Istanbul in 1325 AH (1907 CE) . Manuscripts are preserved in repositories including the Zahiriyya Library in Damascus and the al-Azhar Library in Cairo . Its verification and arguments were subsequently referenced by later authorities, including in al-Fatawa al-Mahdiyya and in fatwas issued by the Grand Mufti of Egypt Muhammad Abduh .
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