A House Does Not Become Waqf by Being Called a Khanqah

Question

About 50 years ago, in the era of the princely state, Her Highness Sultan Jahan Begum gave a two-storey building for residential purposes to the spiritual guide Ziya al-Din on free loan for use (ʿariyya); there is no evidence that it was made waqf or declared a khanqah (Sufi lodge). Because the guide lived there, the house came to be called “the khanqah”. About 40 years ago the guide Ziya al-Din went to his native town of Unnao, and a year after leaving he died there.

Answer

If the matter is indeed thus — that this house was neither made waqf nor declared the property of the spiritual guide, but the ownership of the original owner remains over it — then the owner has the full right to dispose of it, and making it a Muslim maternity home is also permissible. If, because the guide lived in it on free loan (ʿariyya)

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

Preview. The full text opens with JavaScript enabled.