Ruling on selling endowment books if their benefit is lost
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Selling endowment books if the benefit is lost, whether due to the age of the book, the emergence of a better edited book, or the tearing of the book, where the book is sold and a better book is bought in its place, whether in terms of editing, printing, or otherwise, is this permissible?
As for when the benefit of the endowed book is lost such that it is torn or its paper has become worn out, and it is not possible to read from it, there is no harm in selling it and buying a replacement for it.
And as for when it remains and can be used, if someone buys a better replacement for it on the condition that the reward of this last endowment is for the first one, there is no harm in that either; because he has replaced the endowment with something better. However, if he intends to cancel the first endowment and make the reward for himself, this is not permissible; because it is an encroachment on the rights of its owner. Do you understand now?The questioner: What do you mean?The Shaykh: Now I say: If the use of the endowment is lost due to the tearing of the paper, or because it has become worn out and old, it is sold and a replacement is bought for it, even if we suppose that we did not find its exact equivalent, but only found another book that serves as its substitute, or part of its substitute, there is no harm. However, if it can be used, but a new edition has appeared that is better in paper or has annotations, it is not permissible to replace this with that, except if the one who wants to make the reward of the last edition for the first one, then there is no harm.
As for when the benefit of the endowed book is lost such that it is torn or its paper has become worn out, and it is not possible to read from it, there is no harm in selling it and buying a replacement for it.
And as for when it remains and can be used, if someone buys a better replacement for it on the condition that the reward of this last endowment is for the first one, there is no harm in that either; because he has replaced the endowment with something better. However, if he intends to cancel the first endowment and make the reward for himself, this is not permissible; because it is an encroachment on the rights of its owner. Do you understand now?The questioner: What do you mean?The Shaykh: Now I say: If the use of the endowment is lost due to the tearing of the paper, or because it has become worn out and old, it is sold and a replacement is bought for it, even if we suppose that we did not find its exact equivalent, but only found another book that serves as its substitute, or part of its substitute, there is no harm. However, if it can be used, but a new edition has appeared that is better in paper or has annotations, it is not permissible to replace this with that, except if the one who wants to make the reward of the last edition for the first one, then there is no harm.