If it becomes clear that religious funds are nothing but sacred trusts (amanat) in the hand of the jurist, his representative, or the person entrusted with them, then the death of the jurist changes nothing about the reality of the trust. Therefore, the religious position is the transfer of the trust to another fully qualified jurist (al-faqih al-jami’ li-l-shara’it) who takes charge after him.
Note that this is a hypothesis that rarely occurs, or it may occur with the presence of only a minor amount of trusts, and not as imagined in staggering numbers, as if there are massive balances accumulating over time with the jurists, as some malicious individuals like to depict and broadcast to simple-minded people. Reality indicates that the jurists have always suffered from a scarcity of religious resources. Whenever they become available, they hasten to redistribute them to their religiously prescribed places, either by instructing those working in their service or by granting permission to spend them to meet the needs of the poor and the destitute, and to support the seminaries (hawzat), institutions, schools, religious centers, and humanitarian services for the believers wherever they are found.84
- For example: ↩
