Forcibly Turning Walnut Trees and Their Land into Awqaf

Question

Some time ago our elders planted a number of walnut trees. Before that this was not a graveyard: that graveyard lies on the other side of the village, but it is also very far away. Then the villagers designated a dry spot nearby as their graveyard, but there were some walnut trees in it. Some people of the village wanted to acquire these trees by oppression and force, and they also want to make them awqaf, and to spend the money so obtained on a water tap, a bridge, a well, and part of it on the mosque as well.

Answer

If they planted those trees on land they owned, and then did not make that land a waqf for the graveyard but kept it in their own ownership, then the trees belong to them alone, and it is not permissible for anyone to take possession of them.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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