Wilaya over property (fiqh)

الولاية على المال

Authority over property (al-wilaya 'ala al-mal) is, in the jurists' usage, the capacity under the law to dispose of one's own property or of another's. It is linked to authority over the person, since both carry the power to execute an order over another. ¹

The cause of this authority, in al-Kasani's analysis, is in truth two things: fatherhood and judgeship. The paternal grandfather is a father through an intermediary; the executor of the father or grandfather derives his authority from them, so it is in substance the authority of fatherhood; the judge's executor derives his from the judge, so it is the authority of judgeship. ²