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The Fawzooz Digital Waqf Licence

The Fawzooz Digital Waqf Licence for creativity and the digital commons

«Towards free knowledge, and a benefit that never ends»

The Fawzooz Digital Waqf Licence is an open digital initiative and standard. It aims to ground the idea of a knowledge commons in a purely Islamic and ethical vision that keeps pace with the digital age. It rests on an established principle: turning digital, intellectual and software creativity into an ongoing charity (sadaqah jariyah) and knowledge that benefits others, while keeping scholarly integrity and making sure the work is never put to use that harms the individual or society.

The simple charter

If you find the Digital Waqf mark on any content (a book, an article, code, a design or research), the original creator grants you the following under this charter:

  1. The work’s origin

    This creation is a Digital Waqf, given for the sake of Allah for the benefit of all.

  2. Freedom bound by value

    You have every right to use the work, copy it, adapt it and build on it. Commercial use is allowed (such as putting the work to use in your consultancy, your training programmes or your software projects), but reselling “the original work as it is”, bare, is strictly forbidden: gain comes from the value added or the service given, not from selling the original given in waqf.

  3. The condition of benefit (the red line)

    The work may not be put to use in any context that contravenes the higher aims (maqasid) of Islamic law or the laws against cybercrime, or that promotes hatred, fraud or harm to society. The original creator alone has the right to judge and refuse any use they find at odds with these values.

  4. Faithful attribution

    You must name the original creator or the platform that issued the work, giving credit where it is due and preserving their effort, so that the benefit continues. Naming the creator is for scholarly integrity only, and in no way means that the creator sponsors, supports or vouches for the derived project or its quality.

How do you use the Digital Waqf for your work?

To place your work under the Digital Waqf Licence, just take these two steps:

1

The notice

Add this statement at the start of your book, in your website’s footer, or inside your project’s files:

This work is available under the open Fawzooz Digital Waqf Licence. Use, development and circulation for lawful purposes are permitted, with attribution to the original creator required.
2

The code (for websites and platforms)

Copy this HTML into your website so that your visitors and search engines can recognise the content’s licence:

<div class="digital-waqf-license" style="text-align:center; padding: 10px; border: 1px solid #ccc; border-radius: 5px;">
  <a href="https://fawzooz.ai/en/waqf/" target="_blank" rel="license">
    <img alt="The Fawzooz Digital Waqf Licence" style="border-width:0; width: 88px;" src="https://fawzooz.ai/waqf/digital-waqf-light.svg" />
  </a>
  <br />
  This content is available as a <a href="https://fawzooz.ai/en/waqf/" rel="license">Fawzooz Digital Waqf</a>, for use within the bounds of Islamic law, with the creator’s right of attribution preserved.
</div>

Questions

May I use content given in waqf in commercial projects or paid work?

Yes. The Digital Waqf Licence lets you gain from “value added”: you may use a framework in a paid consultancy, teach the book’s content in a paid course, or build code into a larger commercial system that you sell.

May I take a book or a tool under the Digital Waqf Licence and sell it as it is?

No, that is not allowed in any case. The original given in waqf is free and will stay free. You may not take a PDF or code and sell it as it is to others. Financial gain must be in return for a service you provide (such as explaining it, applying it, customising it, or printing it on paper), not for selling the digital original that the creator gave for the sake of Allah.

What if I develop or adapt a work under the Digital Waqf Licence?

You are entirely free to adapt and develop it, noting that your work is built on the original (and naming its first creator). You must make your developed work available under the same licence, so that the benefit continues.

Scope
The creator (the owner of the work) grants a worldwide, free, non-exclusive licence to use the work by any means, as long as the user keeps to the conditions above.
No monopoly and no bare resale (Non-Resale of the Original)
This licence gives the user no right to resell exact copies of the original work (digital copies) as a direct commercial sale. Any fee the user charges must be solely for additional services (development, integration, training, technical support), not a price for the work given in waqf itself.
Waqf passed on (Share-Alike)
Any development or adaptation of this work itself that is published must be made available to the public under the same (Digital Waqf) licence, so that the benefit keeps flowing and knowledge is not monopolised. Putting the work to use inside a larger product or service does not oblige that product or service to be published.
The right to withdraw attribution
The original creator keeps the right to ask any user to remove their name, or any reference to them, from any derived work, at any time and without giving reasons, and the user must comply at once.
Artificial intelligence
If this work is used to train artificial intelligence models, the models must be built to name the original source when generating any output that relies substantially on this work.
Disclaimer
The original work is provided “as is”, without warranties. The original creator bears no legal, technical or security liability arising from the use of the work or from changes made to it.
Termination
If a user puts the work to any activity that contravenes Islamic law (such as fraud, harming the security of society, or malicious software), this licence is void for them at once, and they alone bear the consequences in this world and the next.
No endorsement
A user may not imply that the owner of the original work sponsors or supports their derived project in any way, unless this has been agreed in writing.

The marks

Download the Digital Waqf mark in its formats, for your printed and digital projects:

fawzooz.ai/waqf