
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

 In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
"Waqf" General Public License

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

Publishing any intellectual work (including but not 
limited to books and Computer Software) is not done by
selling even if it appeared to be so, but it's about
getting an implied license that has no enforcement
without the concept of intellectual property granted by
man-made laws which was acquired as they claim to promote
the publication of science and the useful arts. The
concept of the so called “intellectual property” is
centered around giving ownership to the first one who
register the work (called owner or copyright holder and
we will refer to him/her/it as holder) then the holder
practice his rights on the work in it's intangible form
on any media it's carried, and thus using the intellectual
work without explicit prior permission is according to
them ethically equivalent to hijacking ships or “piracy”
as they call it. This permission is called License and
it's aimed to give the holder (usually the publisher) an
advantage in the market against other publishers through
monopoly on providing that work by imposing restrictions
on the users not the publishers. Such works are called
“Proprietary”.

We see that such agreements (proprietary licenses) are
evil, but we also acknowledge that making an agreement
with a prior intention to violate it is another immoral
evil 1). We don't solve problems with problems, we offer
an alternative.

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.” 2)
    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 Gharar3)
(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), it's only
justified by individualist capitalism 4)
    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.
    The uncertainty and intangible nature of the claimed owned
product is the source of “protection money collecting” where
some company threaten some smaller company by copyright
infringement lawsuit on some purposely ambiguous product which
the later can't afford so they go safe and pay.

If the good intentions made excuses to introduce
“intellectual proprietary” by the Machiavellists who
wrote the American constitution as an acquired
right (at least they admit it's not a natural right),
 they serve their own way of life which
is not international. We don't take that. We have our own high
moral standards. We introduce Waqf General Public License to
place it among the anti-copyright licenses. This license is
designed to grant rights to users not to restrict them, it's
uses the concept of copyleft/copy-wrong as opposed to the
concept of copyright.

Computer software, Medicine formula or even poems are
considered to be intellectual works and thus can be covered
by “Waqf”. An intellectual work is any useful idea that can
be delivered or utilized by people. “Waqf” is not meant for
ideas in general, but for intellectual work which is
beneficial to people if published. As we support protecting
privacy for example one shouldn't publish names of his
customers,bid prices, government military or political
secrets because
those are not intellectual works.

We should clarify two things:

    First: The favor and ethical rights of the holder are
preserved and acknowledged
    Second: original author and any other party (if they
have the intention and the ability) 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.
    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).
    the licensee or the user: any one or party who uses
the work (runs, copies, modifies or otherwise takes
benefits provided by the work).
    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” 5) the holder announce
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” 6).

“Waqf” gives users (regardless of their nationality,
color, race, religion) the right to benefit from the
work with running, copying, redistribution, or even
develop and only with according to the following

    First - Usage :

The user may use the work for any good purpose and he
may not use it to harm others or violate the permissive
principles of Islam 7). Notice that any work that is
most likely harmful can't be put under Waqf in the
first place.

    Second - Redistribution :

The user have 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.

    Third - 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.

    Fourth - Redistribute modifications:

The user can redistribute modifications only under
this license provided that he 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.

    Fifth - 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 SOFTWARE
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.

Conclusion

Applying Waqf public license help to spread the
awareness of dangers caused by intellectual property.
And provide people with a legal alternative even
though we don't believe on the validity of such
man made laws.


------------------------------------
1) http://www.islam-qa.com/ar/ref/454
2) 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”.
3) Some information about Ghrar is available
at http://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/gharar.asp
4) Although Islamic economy is a kind of liberal
capitalism economy but it's regulated with so
many moral rulings that guarantee social justice
5) The name Waqf means to prevent the source
or assets from being consumed while giving
away for charity the proceeds.
6) 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.
7) 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.

