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Islamic Wakf, The, William F. Fratcher

Missouri Law Review

The institution of wakf rests upon the shari'a, the religious law of Islam. Although it antedates the mediaeval English feoffment to uses, precursor of the trust, by at least four centuries, the Islamic wakf bears striking resemblances to the trust. The origins of the shari'a are to be found in the Koran, looked upon as the revealed word of Allah, and in the Hadith, traditions of the deeds and sayings of the Prophet Mohammed. Some discussions of the peculiarities of the shari'a will be helpful to an understanding of the law of wakf. First, the shari'a is a personal, as …