A reflection on Disagreement in Interpreting the Conditions of Electing the Custodians in Offspring Endowments (Vaqf)(Case Study: Offspring Endowment of Sadri Fort of Qom)

Offspring endowments are very important in securing the least financial needs of a family, protecting historical identity, and keeping alive family relations. Disagreement over electing the custodians and the way of spending the incomes have been among continuous problems of this type of endowment. This paper is going to study the way of electing custodians in the endowment of Sadri fort and the disagreement over electing and function of custodians based on the conditions of the donor. Having raised matters such as the importance of Offspring endowments and their functions; the history of the offspring endowment of Sadri fort of Qom and looking at the election and function of the custodians of the endowment, the paper will study the different aspects of the subject. The matter of custodianship in the offspring endowment of Sadri fort of Qom (Nosrat Abad) and the process of electing a custodian for this offspring endowment from the late years of the Qajar period up to now will be studied and researched, then matters such as the circumstances of executing the last will of the donor, disagreement between the children and the interference of other authorities in the endowment as an important and large type of offspring endowment in the country will be studied and researched. The most important questions of the paper are what reasons have affected electing the custodian of the offspring endowment of Sadri fort of Qom? Has the last will of the donor been executed? Was it possible adding between the two conditions of oldest and the worthiest or in case of having one condition or two conditions, was it possible to elect a custodian with the agreement of the heirs? To answer the questions, issues such as offspring endowments and their functions, a look at the history of the offspring endowment of Sadri fort, its custodianship and problems will be raised and answered in the paper. The Literature review of the subject shows that there is no paper on the offspring endowment of Sadri fort and its history, but some papers have been written on the offspring endowments including ''an analysis on the structure of the offspring endowments, case study: "offspring endowments of Razavi Sayyeds" (Sayyedi, 2001)1, " Razavi Sayyeds in Mashhad "(Hassan Abadi, 2009)2, chiefly focused on the Razavi Sayyeds and paid less attention to problems and difficulties of custodians and their actions. Meanwhile, a paper titled ''Ardabili Sadar al-Mamalik and the endowment of Nosrat Abad of Qom: Sadri fort ''(Mohseni, 2015)3 studied the history of endowments of Sadri fort generally and a paper titled ''the oldest or the worthiest: " A look on the circumstance of electing custodians of the endowment of Razavi Sayyeds'' (Hassan Abadi, 2009)4  which focused especially on the donor's conditions in the election of custodians and its effect on their election after donor by relying on the offspring endowment of Razavi Sayyeds, have a direct relation with the subject of this paper.

The method of this paper is a historical- documentary taking use of oral history. One of the features of the paper is using oral history and family documents as important sources in documenting the data of the paper and it is attempted to observe the standards of the use of the methods.

The finding and results of the paper show that the special offspring endowment of Sadri fort of Qom (Nosrat Abad) has a large expanse, suitable geographical position, and human resources, but family disputes on the election of common custodians, the circumstance of using the endowment, the incompetence of the custodian of every part (their common parts), lack of effective supervising role on the part of the related governmental organizations (according to laws) caused the endowment not having a worthy situation among other large offspring endowments in the country. Having a common custodian for endowment and setting the condition of being oldest and worthiest in the election of custodianship by Ardabili Sadr al-Mamalik has caused a dispute over choosing suitable persons and in different periods has caused the interference of government authorities and taking fatva from religious authorities. It seems that according to the current conditions and new management theories, creating an up-to-date and strong management structure can greatly help the growth and development, and productivity of this endowment. For this purpose, it has been suggested that the people of each main branch and its sub-branches be present in this endowment, to follow up and create a "general family assembly". The assembly can investigate two essential works. First, after the death and resignation (by every cause) of every custodian, the assembly can choose the oldest and merited person and recommend him/her to Vaqf Organization to get a custodianship order. Another important work is to appoint persons from the family to accompany the elected custodian in doing the affairs of the large offspring endowment of Sadri fort of Qom and helping him in this critical work. Of course, supervising the custodian's works and his assistants is one of the tasks of the general assembly.