Waqf

A waqf, also called a ḥabs, is an irrevocable trust in Islamic law, usually an endowment of real estate or other assets whose revenues serve a specified purpose, such as a mosque, school, fountain or the founder's family. Once declared, the property cannot be sold, transferred or given away and is legally held to belong to God; the founder appoints a trustee to manage it. The practice rests on hadiths, among them Umar's endowment of land at Khaybar on Muhammad's advice, but the formal system emerged from the 9th century: the oldest dated deed, of 876 CE, concerns a Qur'an now in Istanbul. The Jerusalem Waqf manages the al-Aqsa Mosque.