"Waqf" General Public License بسم الله الرّحمن الرّحيم
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
"Waqf" General Public License 2.0, 3 Muharram 1435
This is the informal English translation of Waqf General Public License. Anything but the Arabic version of the license has no value except for convenience of our English speaking users. When we talk about the License we refer to the Arabic version, which is the only one we officially offer, we will try our best to make other translation as accurate as possible but because of the nature of human languages we use one single reference language. Preamble
This document is the controlling agreement for the use of the material covered by it, as it is considered to be the contract signed between the publisher and the beneficiary, as each contract has its own rules and conditions. We see that monopolistic agreements not only restrict the beneficiary but affect the value of intellectual work, From a light to a mere commodity, where the intellectual property right is owned by the first intellectual depositor. Our vision for this property is limited to the moral form of the intellectual work itself in accordance with the rules below, unlike the monopoly licenses that place unfair restrictions that keep the second party weak and encouraged to violate them as much as possible.
We have a different vision, we offer our work (like computer software) to please Allah, and this is the pillar of this license which distinguish it from proprietary licenses. Any other intention (like spreading knowledge or getting profits) should be accomplished in ways that does not go against our primary moral aim.
According to our beliefs (which we don't enforce on any one, and you may or may not share it with us) that Islam certainly forbids monopoly and concealing knowledge in general, and this comes from:
The sound Hadith (saying of prophet Muhammad PBUH): “Who conceal any type of knowledge will be bridle with a bridle of fire on the Day of Resurrection.” 1)
Islamic Jurisprudence has specified what can be owned, and the rules does not apply to ideas as it's not a bounded tangible object and almost all the terms of proprietary agreements fall in ruling of forbidden Gharar2) (a kind of fraud that use uncertainty to fool the customers) as we see in Imam Muslim Sahih description of that term {and below that term we classify so many actions like selling negligible objects or unknowns or what can't be delivered or things that are not fully owned by the seller} and such view is also shared by the four major scholars.
The laws of Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence) have been perfected in the good centuries and no new rulings are allowed to be brought except for newly discovered things and this does not apply ideas as they did exist in the past centuries and Muslims massively spread them without owning them. FYI: Almost all the Islamic literature is freely available on the internet.
Concealing useful knowledge from those who need it impose damage to people for temporal gains to few individuals. This can not be justified by Shari'a (Islamic Law) as there should be no harm nor malice.
Even bringing interests to software publishers is not a valid excuse because there are some companies produce and publish software without owning them (proprietary software) and yet they gain profits.
The so call “Intellectual Proprietary” is all about giving owners the right to forbid what Allah had made lawful to gain money, not by providing service nor goods. For the "owned" product is of uncertain and intangible nature and claiming its ownership opens the door for extortion.
We in Waqf (as in many anti-monopoly licenses) are concerned with the interest of the general public over its counterpart of those who glorify self-interest. We do not lose sight of our interest in the holder's interest in the reward of Allah Almighty. We believe that the copyright and distribution are "granted" and not "reserved" as stated in terms below. We stop here to clarify two points:
First: The favor and ethical rights of the holder are preserved and acknowledged
Second: original author and any other party have the right to get fees on enhancing the work or developing it or to provide paid services or paid courses …etc. but not the work in its intangible form. There is not contradiction between getting fees on services because what is covered by “Waqf” is the source form of the work not the media nor the service (the same way one can take fees on shipping fruits for a charitable Waqf fruit field or make juice)
Definitions
The following terms would have the corresponding meanings in this license
The intellectual work (or The work for short): is any useful intangible intellectual product that can be passed on to others or replicated at no cost imposed on the original author or the one who pass it on before, which is the endowment.
The holder: is the creative author or the party which carried the process of developing the work and make it available (and the one who holds the copyrights on the product before the governmental offices), which is the endower and he/she must have the right and capacity to approve the endowment atthe time of publication.
The licensee or the user: any one or party who uses the work, which is the endowed.
The license: this agreement (the Arabic version of “Waqf”) between the two parties (the holder and the user) covering the usage of the second party on the work provided by the first party. The usage of the product is with accordance to the terms of this license. And because of the intangible nature of the work, this agreement applies by using the product (in any way) without signing the agreement. One do not accept the terms looses the rights given by this license and his/her usage of the work is considered illegal and will be sued.
The Terms
Waqf General Public license (or “Waqf” for short) covers intellectual works (including but not limited to Software and paper publications, scientific theses, art works) and have many common features with FLOSS licenses. Waqf is distinguished with its moral intentions behind the work and usage limits.
As the name suggests, with “Waqf” 3) the holder announces his/her work was produced and made available to the public for the sake of Allah aimed to please Allah by providing people with useful works. It's a form of “Sadaqa Jariah” 4).
“Waqf” gives users (regardless of their nationality, color, race, religion) the right to benefit from the work with running, copying, redistribution, or even developing and only with according to the following
First - Preamble:
All above-mentioned in the preamble, definitions and terms preamble is considered an integral part of this license.
Second - Usage :
The user is entitled to use the work for any purpose and the holder advises not to use the work in harming others or in violation of the permissive principles of Islam 5), and the holder is not responsible for the user's violations of Islamic law or abuse of others in the use of work.
Third - Coverage:
Waqf license can cover the published works with other licenses that do not conflict with it. Also Waqf can cover the parts that complement the work of other licenses, or the works that have been exonerated by domestic laws because of the expiry of their period. Waqf does not cover works which are harmful or most likely to be harmful.
Fourth - Time limit:
Waqf license is not subject to a time limit, the publication of the work licensed under Waqf does not end with a certain period. The date of each use of the work is considered a new date for signing the agreement - that is a new publication date and a new publication acceptance date - so whatever the maximum duration of intellectual property under domestic law is ruled out because each use of the work restarts this period from the beginning.
Fifth - Redistribution :
The user has the right to redistribute the unmodified work in any quantity to any third party under the terms of this license, acknowledging the favor and ethical rights of the holder to the third party.
Sixth - Modifications :
The user has the right to get the source form of the work and make modifications enhancing or adopting to the user's needs to the limits given by this license.
Seventh - Redistribute modifications:
The user can redistribute modifications only under this license provided that he/she points to previous original work (the unmodified work) and its author and the nature of modification clearly to the third party to whom the modified work is presented in a way that no one may reasonably get confused between it and the original unmodified work of the previous author.
Eighth- Disclaimer of responsibility :
The holder does not take any legal nor moral direct or indirect responsibility nor liability on the good or bad usage or damages caused by the work to the farthest level allowed by the law. THIS WORK IS PROVIDED AS IS AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED BY THE HOLDER.
The entire responsibility is on the user and the only warranty given to him is the source of the work.
- This is an authentic sound/Sahih as it's narrated by Imam Ahmad, Abu Dawood, AlTirmithi and Ibn Majah. Refer to “Hoisting the Lighthouse : A synopsis of the Various narrations of the Hadith: Whoever conceals knowledge, Allah will bridle him with a bridle of fire” or in Arabic “رفع المنار بطرق حديث من كتم علماً ألجمه الله بلجام من نار”.
- Some information about Ghrar is available at http://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/gharar.asp
- The name Waqf means to prevent the source or assets from being consumed while giving away for charity the proceeds.
- Sadaqa Jariah means sustainable charity which is a kind of charity that continue to be beneficial to people even after the death of the one who give it like giving the fruits of a field but not the field, more over prophet Muhammad PBUH specifically named useful knowledge as a form of that kind of charity.
- Some scholars use the term Maqasid Alsharia and summarize them by saying that it aims to protect people rights in religion, lives, sanity, breed, and properties.