Waqf Digital Public License - Version 1.0 (Waqf-DPL 1.0)

First Edition of the Waqf Digital Public License, 1447 AH

Preamble: The Concept of Waqf in this License

This License is a Sharia-compliant and legal instrument for applying the concept of Islamic Waqf (charitable endowment) to intellectual and digital works. Waqf is defined as “holding the origin and dedicating the usufruct” (habs al-asl wa tasbil al-manfa’ah)—that is, dedicating the intellectual work itself as an endowment to God Almighty, which may neither be sold nor gifted, while making its benefit accessible to the general public as an ongoing charity (sadaqah jariyah) through which the endower seeks reward from God.

By using or distributing the work licensed under this License, you acknowledge and agree to its terms as a binding contract between you and the Endower. We believe that beneficial knowledge and science should be accessible to all, and this License offers an Islamic alternative balancing the innovator’s right to enduring reward and the community’s right to benefit.

1. Definitions

• The Work: Any intellectual or digital material (such as software code, books, audio, video, images, and others) placed by its author under this License.
• The Endower (Al-Waqif): The original author of the Work who holds the intellectual property rights and voluntarily chooses to endow the Work under this License.
• The Beneficiary / User (Al-Muntafi’): Any natural person or legal entity that uses or derives benefit from the Work in any manner.
• The Trustee (Al-Nazir): The natural person or legal entity designated by the Endower (or to whom the trusteeship of the waqf devolves legally and under Sharia following the death or incapacity of the Endower) to manage, protect, and enforce the conditions of the waqf. The Trustee represents the authorized body to take administrative and legal measures to protect the waqf (such as revoking the license from violators or re-licensing them). The appointment is evidenced by a written decree from the Endower, a certified digital signature, or a decision from the competent judicial/Sharia authority upon vacancy. The Trustee is bound by continuous care and oversight; since automating waqf tasks computationally (such as automated scanning and automated preventive license revocation) is permissible and commendable under Sharia to facilitate work, save time, and enforce compliance, the Trustee’s responsibility focuses on human intervention to resolve outages and remediate software and security vulnerabilities promptly upon occurrence. Neglecting endowed software systems after failure or ignoring their vulnerabilities constitutes negligence entailing liability under Sharia. The Trustee is exempt from liability in cases of force majeure and technical failures beyond their control (such as outages of third-party hosting providers or unavoidable cyber intrusions despite maintaining appropriate security standards). The Trustee possesses the authority to substitute the digital waqf (technical substitution and compensation / istibdal) by migrating it to newer technical environments or liquidating its assets toward another software project achieving a superior waqf benefit when the original technology becomes obsolete or excessively costly to operate.
• Derivative Work (Al-‘Amal Al-Mushtaqq): Any new work resulting from modifying, translating, adapting, excerpting from, or building upon the original Work.
• Anonymous Translation: Translating the Work into another language without clear and explicit attribution to the original Endower or without citing the original License governing the Work (such as publishing the translation under the translator’s name alone without citing the Endower or License).
• Commercial Use: Any use of the Work or its derivatives whose primary purpose is to generate direct or indirect financial profit, or to achieve private commercial or financial gain, regardless of the legal form of the entity using the Work (whether commercial, governmental, or non-profit). Excluded from this definition are incidental, unintended secondary benefits to the user (such as an increase in personal website visitors resulting from displaying the waqf work, indirectly increasing overall site ad revenue in a manner not specifically intended for the work). Also excluded are “self-funding” mechanisms intended exclusively to cover operating and technical maintenance costs of the waqf (such as donation links, or Sharia-compliant ad mediation configured solely to cover hosting and operational invoices without private profit), provided that access to the work remains free of charge to the public and is not directly sold or exploited for intentional profit.
• Protection of Beneficiary Data and Privacy (Data Trust / Amanat al-Bayanat): Personal and confidential data of beneficiaries of the digital waqf constitutes an integral part of the sacred waqf trust under Sharia and law. Accordingly, the user commits to implementing appropriate security safeguards for user privacy. Commercial exploitation, leaking, or negligent protection of user data is strictly prohibited; breaching beneficiary data privacy or selling it constitutes a material breach of the waqf conditions, resulting in immediate invalidation and forfeiture of the license to benefit.
• The License: This document with all its clauses, conditions, and levels.

2. License Levels

The Endower grants the following rights to the Beneficiary on condition that one of the following seven levels is explicitly chosen and specified with the Work:

Level 1: Waqf by Attribution (WaqfDPL-Isnad)

Attribution (Isnad): This level is the most permissive, allowing unconstrained utilization while preserving moral rights.
You are freely permitted to:

• Share: Copy and distribute the Work in any medium or format.
• Modify: Adapt, remix, transform, and build upon the Work.
• Use: Use the Work for any purpose, including commercial purposes.

Under the sole condition:

• Attribution: You must give appropriate credit to the original Endower and cite this License (WaqfDPL-Isnad 1.0) with a link where feasible, without implying that the Endower endorses you or your derivative work.

Level 2: Binding Waqf by Attribution (WaqfDPL-Mulzim)

Binding / ShareAlike (Mulzim): This level guarantees the continuity of the waqf in derivative works (Copyleft).
You are freely permitted to:

• Share: Copy and distribute the Work in any medium or format.
• Modify: Adapt, remix, transform, and build upon the Work.
• Use: Use the Work for any purpose, including commercial purposes.

Under the following conditions:

• Attribution: You must give appropriate credit to the original Endower and cite this License (WaqfDPL-Mulzim 1.0).
• Binding (ShareAlike): If you remix, transform, or build upon the Work, you must distribute your derivative work exclusively under the same License (WaqfDPL-Mulzim 1.0). This condition mandates the perpetuity of the waqf and fulfills the principle of “holding the origin”.

Level 3: Charitable Waqf by Attribution (WaqfDPL-Khayri)

Charitable / NonCommercial (Khayri): This level restricts use to non-commercial and charitable purposes.
You are freely permitted to:

• Share: Copy and distribute the Work in any medium or format.
• Modify: Adapt, remix, transform, and build upon the Work, provided that the license of the derivative work is not more restrictive than the original, ensuring waqf utility is not narrowed.

Under the following conditions:

• Attribution: You must give appropriate credit to the original Endower and cite this License (WaqfDPL-Khayri 1.0).
• Charitable Use: You may not use the Work primarily for commercial or profit-seeking purposes; use is confined to personal, charitable, educational, and public outreach purposes.

Level 4: Binding Charitable Waqf by Attribution (WaqfDPL-Khayri-Mulzim)

Binding Charitable / NonCommercial-ShareAlike (Khayri-Mulzim): This level combines the prohibition of material profit with the requirement of perpetual waqf intention across all modifications and derivatives.
You are freely permitted to:

• Share: Copy and distribute the Work in any medium or format.
• Modify: Adapt, remix, transform, and build upon the Work.

Under the following conditions:

• Attribution: You must give appropriate credit to the original Endower and cite this License (WaqfDPL-Khayri-Mulzim 1.0).
• Charitable Use: You may not use the Work for direct commercial or financial profit-seeking purposes.
• Binding Charity: If you modify or build upon the Work, you must distribute your derivative work exclusively under the same License (WaqfDPL-Khayri-Mulzim 1.0), charitably and openly to all.

Level 5: Preserved Waqf by Attribution (WaqfDPL-Mahfudh)

Preserved / NoDerivatives (Mahfudh): This level preserves the Work in its original form, prohibiting alteration, translation, or excerpting, while opening its benefit to the public as a solid, unified whole.
You are freely permitted to:

• Share: Copy and distribute the Work in its original form only, in any medium or format and for any purpose, including commercial purposes.

Under the following conditions:

• Attribution: You must give appropriate credit to the original Endower and cite this License (WaqfDPL-Mahfudh 1.0).
• Preservation: Beneficiaries may not modify or build upon the Work; distribution of derivative works is prohibited, and translating or excerpting the Work in any form is strictly forbidden. Excluded from this are technical updates and necessary software maintenance performed by the Endower or authorized Trustee to protect the waqf from technical decay and obsolescence.

Level 6: Preserved Charitable Waqf by Attribution (WaqfDPL-Khayri-Mahfudh)

Preserved Charitable / NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (Khayri-Mahfudh): This level combines the prohibition of material profit with the prohibition of modification or alteration, ensuring complete integrity and authenticity.
You are freely permitted to:

• Share: Copy and distribute the Work in its original form only, free of charge across charitable, educational, outreach, and personal domains.

Under the following conditions:

• Attribution: You must give appropriate credit to the original Endower and cite this License (WaqfDPL-Khayri-Mahfudh 1.0).
• Charitable Use: Selling or commercially exploiting the Work for profit is strictly prohibited.
• Full Preservation: Beneficiaries may not modify, merge, slice, or excerpt parts of the Work, and translating or excerpting the Work in any form is strictly forbidden. Excluded from this are technical updates and necessary software maintenance performed by the Endower or authorized Trustee to protect the waqf from technical decay and obsolescence.

Level 7: Restricted Waqf by Attribution (WaqfDPL-Muqayyad)

Restricted (Muqayyad): This level allows the Endower to specify an additional custom condition, operating as a flexible wrapper applied obligatorily on top of one of the six standard base levels above.
Mandatory Application Format for Level 7:

• Applied Base Level: [Specify one of the first six standard levels exclusively, e.g.: Level 3: Charitable Waqf (WaqfDPL-Khayri 1.0)].
• Endower’s Additional Custom Condition: [State your custom condition with utmost clarity, e.g.: “The benefit of this work is restricted to educational purposes for orphan care organizations and orphanages only”].

Consistency & Non-Contradiction Rules: To preserve the legal and Sharia validity of the license, custom conditions are subject to strict non-contradiction rules with the chosen base level:

1. Commercial Restriction Rule: If the Endower wishes to prohibit commercial use in the custom condition, they must select a base level that already prohibits commercial use (Levels 3, 4, or 6). Selecting a base level that permits commercial use (Levels 1 or 2) and then attempting to prohibit it via custom condition is strictly invalid.
2. Modification Restriction Rule: If the Endower wishes to prohibit modification in the custom condition, they must select a preserved base level that already prohibits modification (Levels 5 or 6). Selecting a base level that permits modification (Levels 1 or 2) and then attempting to prohibit it via custom condition is strictly invalid.
3. Priority & Severability Rule: In the event of any explicit conflict or contradiction between the custom condition and the chosen base level, the custom condition is deemed null and void, and the standard terms of the chosen base level govern, protecting the stability of benefit and the general waqf interest.

3. General Provisions (Applicable to All Levels)

• Lawful Purpose (Revocation for Prohibited Use): This Work is an endowment to God Almighty to serve society and disseminate general benefit. It is required under Sharia and law that the Work and its derivatives not be employed for any purpose violating the principles of Islamic Sharia or its manifest prohibitions (such as integrating the Work into gambling platforms, pornographic content, promotion of destructive ideological doubts, or explicit usurious transactions). The Endower and Trustee bear no liability for any unlawful use by a Beneficiary; deploying the Work for such prohibitions constitutes an explicit departure from the waqf’s purpose, immediately and automatically voiding the license grant for the violator.
• Perpetuity and Permanence: This License is perpetual and irrevocable. Should intellectual property protections expire under local laws, the Work passes into the Public Domain, while the waqf intention remains an ongoing charity (sadaqah jariyah) under Sharia.
• Automatic Termination upon Breach (Automated Preventive Revocation): This License and the rights of use and distribution granted hereunder terminate immediately and automatically upon any breach or violation of its terms by the Beneficiary (such as failure to provide attribution, commercial use under charitable levels, unauthorized modification, translation, or excerpting under preserved levels, anonymous translation under other levels, breaching beneficiary data privacy, or deploying the Work in prohibited domains). This automatic termination immediately strips all rights from the violator and requires them to cease deriving new benefit, granting a technical grace period not exceeding 30 days solely for the physical deletion and removal of previously distributed copies, without affecting compliant third-party beneficiaries. The Endower or Trustee may formally notify the violator; re-licensing to a violator is possible only through a new application and explicit written approval after full rectification of the breach.
• Disclaimer of Warranties and Limitation of Liability: The Endower provides the Work “AS IS”, without warranty of any kind, express or implied. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, the Endower disclaims all liability for any direct, indirect, or consequential damages arising from the use of the Work.
• Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: Using the Work in training software models, AI systems, or data generation is subject to the same waqf conditions: the user must preserve attribution to the Endower, and using the Work or its derivatives to train models that are commercially distributed or used for private financial profit is strictly prohibited across all charitable levels (Levels 3, 4, and 6).
• Digital-Only Scope: This License applies exclusively to the Work in its digital, software, and electronic form (whether code, applications, ebooks, or digital documents). Storing the digital work on physical tangible media (computers, servers, optical discs, memory cards) does not remove its digital waqf character; the stored digital content remains a digital waqf, while the physical container represents a parallel movable waqf. The Work falls outside the digital scope of this License only if printed physically onto paper, whereupon it becomes subject to traditional tangible movable waqf rules.
• Waqf Integration: Integrating a work endowed under this License with another digital waqf work governed by a waqf license (or compatible license) under a single trustee or administration is permitted if it serves a superior public interest—such as expanding public benefit and reducing operational overhead—provided that integration does not conflict with the essential conditions of the original Endowers.
• Future Revisions: WaqfTech may issue new revisions of this License. The Work remains licensed under the version with which it was released, and the Endower retains the option to relicense under newer versions.

4. Notice Template (How to Apply and Customize the License)

To apply this License and designate one of the seven levels for your work, include the following notice in a prominent location (such as the README file in a software repository or the copyright page in a digital book):

“This work is an endowment (waqf) dedicated to God Almighty under the terms of the Waqf Digital Public License - Version 1.0 (Waqf-DPL 1.0). The applied level is: [State level name here, e.g., Binding Waqf by Attribution (WaqfDPL-Mulzim 1.0)]. [If choosing Level 7 (Muqayyad), add the following:] The Endower’s special condition is: [Write your condition here]. A full copy of the License may be viewed here: [Link to license text]”