What is the legal implication of an endowment phrasing specifying succession among descendants using sequential terms?

General Chapter

Al-Mughni

Book of Endowments (Awqaf) and Donations

Book 27 · Issue 1 · Bab 1

Open in Qurani

Primary text

When an endowment (*waqf*) is structured using terms like 'upon my children, and the children of my children, as they succeed and propagate,' or 'the highest first,' or 'the nearest first,' or 'the first first,' or specifying successive generations ('the first generation then the second generation'), the ruling is based strictly on the specified sequence (tartib). The subsequent generation does not receive anything until the preceding generation is completely extinct. If even one member of the first generation remains, the entire benefit belongs to that remaining member because the endowment is established by the settlor's explicit statement, and the intent derived from the wording must be followed.