The Gift of a Scholar’s Library by His Heirs
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Praise be to Allah alone, and may the prayer and peace be upon the one after whom there is no prophet. And after that: The Permanent Committee for Scholarly Research and Ifta has reviewed what was sent to His Eminence the Grand Mufti from His Excellency the Secretary General of the KingAbdulazizin his letter number (2 20 M) dated 6/1/1426 AH, which was referred to the Committee by the General Secretariat of the Senior Scholars' Council with number (379) dated 25/1/1426 AH. His Excellency asked the following: First question: Is it permissible for theDar to accept the libraries held by the heirs of the scholar, which are not an endowmentand are their property, consisting of (printed books - archives - documents), with the consent of all the heirs, none of whom are minors, in order to serve students of knowledge and to place them in a wing named after them?
Answer: It is permissible for the Foundation to accept libraries belonging to the heirs, whether by way of sale or gift, provided this is with the consent of all the heirs and there are no minors among them; because they are their property and they may dispose of it as owners do.
Second question: Is it permissible for the Foundation to accept libraries belonging to the heirs of a scholar, which are not endowments (waqf) and are their property, consisting of (printed books - manuscripts - documents), with the consent of all the heirs, but there are minors among the heirs, in service of students of knowledge, and to place them in a wing
named after them?
Answer: If there are minors among the heirs, it is not permissible to dispose of their share of the libraries by way of gift; because this is not in their interest. As for sale, it is permissible if it is at the value of the equivalent or more, based on the saying of Allah the Exalted:[Al-An'am 6:152] The implication is that what does not benefit him, you have no right to dispose of it, such as gifts and donations.
Answer: It is permissible for the Foundation to accept libraries belonging to the heirs, whether by way of sale or gift, provided this is with the consent of all the heirs and there are no minors among them; because they are their property and they may dispose of it as owners do.
Second question: Is it permissible for the Foundation to accept libraries belonging to the heirs of a scholar, which are not endowments (waqf) and are their property, consisting of (printed books - manuscripts - documents), with the consent of all the heirs, but there are minors among the heirs, in service of students of knowledge, and to place them in a wing
named after them?
Answer: If there are minors among the heirs, it is not permissible to dispose of their share of the libraries by way of gift; because this is not in their interest. As for sale, it is permissible if it is at the value of the equivalent or more, based on the saying of Allah the Exalted:
And do not approach the orphan's property except in a way that is best
وَلا تَقْرَبُوا مَالَ الْيَتِيمِ إِلا بِالَّتِي هِيَ أَحْسَنُ
Source
www.alifta.gov.sa
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.