Islamic Fiqh > Endowments (waqf) and property > Managing a waqf: the nazar (custody)
The waqf custodian (nadir): who appoints him, what qualities he needs, his powers, his limits and his remuneration according to classical fiqh.
Updated on 31 August 2026 at 3:55 AM
The four schools define the charge: preserving the waqf, maintaining it, leasing it, collecting revenue and distributing it to beneficiaries, all that benefits the waqf. Hanafis specify that the manager owes only what his peers do, and a woman named manager is not charged beyond women's custom; Shafiites include whole management: maintenance, leasing, collection, division, keeping the capital, and even borrowing for the waqf's need; Hanbalis add farming, defending rights and appointing the imam, muezzin and guardian for a mosque waqf.
Agreement of the four schools: the manager's hand over the waqf is a hand of trust, not of aggression; he guarantees loss only for transgression or negligence. Ibn Abidin cites the Dhakhira: if he sells the land, collects the price and the price perishes with him, no guarantee, the price remaining a deposit with him.
The manager takes a wage either fixed by the founder, even above market, or assessed by the judge, or nothing: dominant Hanafis let him eat from the produce reasonably; one Hanbali narration gives him the like wage if he was used to being paid. The judge must hold him to render accounts every six months or yearly, as Umar had his agents audited annually. The prophetic proof is the hadith of Ibn al-Lutabiyya, a charity collector accused of keeping a gift: « Why did he not sit in his father's and mother's house until his gift came to him, if he spoke the truth? » (al-Bukhari 6772, Muslim 1832). Beneficiaries may demand a copy of the waqf deed and question the manager on his management (Hanbali view).
If the founder named nobody: a waqf on a specific beneficiary, he manages; a waqf on open classes, the ruler provides. Agreements: several managers are permitted; if he names two, neither decides alone per Abu Hanifa, Shafiites and Hanbalis, save a contrary clause; the founder may remove his appointee per Abu Yusuf and Malikis even without fault, and per Shafiites and Hanbalis according to his clause's form; can a manager remove himself? Hanafis and one Hanbali way require the judge; Malikis and Shafiites validate his resignation.