Irsad (assigning the revenue of bayt al-mal)

Irsad in the lexicon means preparation: one says he prepared the matter for him. For the jurists it is the imam's assignment of the yield of some bayt al-mal lands to some of its expenditures. The Hanafis also use the term for assigning the revenue of a waqf to pay the debts it incurred for necessary repair. ¹ There are two views of its real nature. The first holds that irsad is not waqf, as the Hanafis state explicitly and the Shafi'is seem to imply, because one of the conditions for a valid waqf fails: the property must be owned by the donor at the time of the waqf. The one who assigns (the mursid) is the imam or his deputy, who owns nothing of what he assigns. Ibn Abidin says that irsad by the sultan is not a waqf at all, since the sultan does not own it, but a fixing of some of bayt al-mal for some of its entitled persons. ¹ The second holds that irsad is in essence a waqf, because no condition of waqf fails in it: the sultan who sets aside some bayt al-mal property acts as agent for the Muslims, as the donor's agent would. On this view waqf and irsad do not differ in prior ownership, and they differ only in that irsad is made only by the imam. ^{1 2} Irsad differs from iqta' (the grant of land by the imam). A grant of ownership gives the grantee the land itself, which irsad does not. A grant of usufruct or of kharaj differs because irsad is perpetual, while the imam may withdraw a usufruct grant from its holder and give it to another; so iqta' is individual and personal, while irsad is general and serves the community. ² Irsad differs from hima. Hima is the imam's setting apart of a dead land itself for the need of others, such as the grazing of the camels of the poll-tax and of alms and the needs of weak Muslims; irsad is the assignment of the yield of some bayt al-mal lands to some of its expenditures. ² Irsad is lawful by the agreement of the scholars, either because it is a waqf and so subject to its rules, or because it secures a public benefit for the Muslims by a lawful means: bayt al-mal property reached the Muslims without fighting, and its expenditure is whatever serves their interests, including scholars and judges. Securing the Muslims' interests is a duty of the imam, so where it cannot be secured without irsad, irsad is obligatory. The Hanafi jurist Ali al-Aqdi said that there is no doubt in its lawfulness, since it brings the right to those entitled to it, and that its obligation is agreed. ² Irsad requires an assignor (mursid, with the kasra on the sad), an assigned property (mursad, with the fatha), the purpose on which it is assigned, and a formula. The conditions of each pillar follow on the next page. ² The pillars and their conditions: the assignor, the assigned property, the assigned purpose and the formula. ² The assignor must be competent to dispose of what he assigns from bayt al-mal: he must have the capacity to donate, and be an imam, an amir, a minister delegated to manage the Muslims' affairs, or a man with a right to bayt al-mal to whom the usufruct of a specific property has been granted. The Malikis require that the assignor not attribute the irsad to himself, since the assigned things are not his property; if he does, it is not valid. ³ The assigned property must be an asset that has reached the bayt al-mal by agreement, such as lands taken by force, so the imam may not assign hawz lands, which are lands whose owners could not farm them or pay their kharaj and handed them to the imam, the usufruct serving to pay the kharaj; these remain the owners' property and are not bayt al-mal's. ³ The assigned purpose must be among the expenditures of bayt al-mal in general. A man with no entitlement from bayt al-mal may not eat from such an irsad even if the administrator approves it, because it is bayt al-mal's property. An irsad to a general purpose that secures the public interest, such as schools, scholars and judges, is valid and effective, since the first expenditure of bayt al-mal is securing the public interests. ^{3 4} On assigning to named persons: most Hanafis, including Ibn al-Shihna, the Malikis and some Shafi'is such as al-Suyuti and al-Subki forbid it, perhaps to block the means and stop corrupt rulers from diverting bayt al-mal to those close to them. The Hanbalis, most Shafi'is and Abu Yusuf allow it when a benefit appears. Ibn Najim and his followers among the Hanafis allow it on condition that the last beneficiary is a general purpose, such as the poor or scholars, considering the outcome. ⁴ The Hanafis and some Shafi'is, including al-Suyuti, hold that the assigned person is entitled to what was assigned even without doing the stipulated work; al-Ramli of the Shafi'is holds that he must do the work and is entitled only if he does it himself or through a deputy. If the assignment is not enough for all who are entitled, the Hanafis give priority to the one with the stronger claim on bayt al-mal, the teacher before the muezzin, the muezzin before the imam, and the imam before the resident; if they are equal, the older is preferred. ^{4 5} The formula must meet the same conditions as for waqf; the word irsad is as valid as the word waqf, and the jurists often use either for the other. The assignor may attach any lawful conditions, as the donor may, a point on which the four schools agree, as al-Fatawa al-Mahdiyya says. ^{4 5} Its effects. (a) The irsad is perpetual, and its expenditure continues on the purpose the assignor named; no later imam may annul or void it, by the agreement of the jurists. An instance: about the year 780-something AH, Sultan Barquq wished to annul an irsad taken from bayt al-mal and held a session attended by al-Bulqini, Ibn Jama'a and Akmal al-Din; al-Bulqini said that what was endowed for scholars and students could not be annulled, since they had more than that in the fifth, but what was assigned to Fatima, Khadija and A'isha could be annulled; those present agreed, and al-Suyuti said this was the agreement reached. ⁵ (b) On observing the conditions: most Hanafis allow the imam to depart from the conditions by increasing or decreasing the expenditures when he sees benefit, but not to divert the assignment from the named purpose; Abu al-Su'ud gives the reason that the assignment comes from bayt al-mal and returns to it. The Malikis and some Hanafis hold that the conditions must be observed and may not be broken, where they accord with the lawful arrangements. ⁵ Second meaning: irsad as the assignment of the revenue of a waqf to pay its debts. The Hanafis use the term for turning part or all of a waqf's revenue from its beneficiaries to pay a lawful debt on the waqf, as when a tenant builds a shop on the waqf property or rebuilds a collapsed building so that what he spends becomes a debt on the waqf, if the revenue has no surplus. In that case the building belongs to the waqf, the tenant takes back what he spent, his claim comes before that of the beneficiaries, and after the building he owes the customary rent (ajr al-mithl). ^{5 6} The difference from hukr (a long lease of waqf land for building on it): in irsad the building belongs to the waqf, while in hukr it belongs to the tenant; what the waqf pays the tenant in irsad is a debt on the waqf, while what the tenant pays the waqf in hukr is the rent of the land. ⁶