Auctioning a Waqf Forest Without the Consent of the Mutawallis

Question

A forest has been endowed as waqf in the name of the Congregational Mosque of Sakroda for twenty years, and this waqf has no particular mutawalli (trustee). In the waqf deed it is written that all the village headmen of the said village… For twenty years the forest was auctioned under the management and with the agreement of all the headmen of the village, and the income was spent on the expenses of the mosque.

Answer

Since all the village headmen (as the waqf deed explicitly states) are its managers and mutawallis, it is not permissible in the Shari‘a for some of them to auction it without the opinion of the others: [ar]ليس لأحد الناظرين التصرف دون الآخر عندهما خلاف لأبي يوسف[/ar] “Neither of the two nazirs (supervisors of the waqf)

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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