What is a testamentary trust used for?

Waqf is the nearest classical analogue, and on the settled view in every school it does take property out of the estate — once a waqf is binding the founder can no longer sell it, give it away, or pass it by inheritance, on the Prophet’s words to ‘Umar: “give the substance in charity: it is not to be sold, nor given away, nor inherited”. But the schools reach that result by four different routes, and the difference is over whose the property becomes: nobody’s, on the Hanafi view; God’s, on the sounder Shafi’i view; the founder’s still, on the Maliki view; the beneficiary’s, on the Hanbali view. A common-law trust is a different creature and no classical school was ever asked about one. AAOIFI, revising its waqf standard in 2019, identified the financial trust, said it resembles waqf in some respects, and expressly put it outside the standard’s scope. We found no ruling on the common-law trust from any recognised body.

All four Sunni schools researched and sourced. Reviewed 2026-09-01. Full positions, evidence and sources — Is a trust recognised in fiqh, and is waqf the closest thing?.