Who bears liability for a theft from the mosque’s room

Question

Question: Copper vessels weighing about one quintal (100 kg) were stolen from a mosque in a situation where there was no lock of any kind on the main door, nor was any guard appointed to protect the mosque; however, the room in which the vessels were kept had a lock, which the thieves easily broke and took the vessels out. In such a case, is any fault attributable to the mosque’s mutawalli (trustee) for not providing reasonable protection or not? If a fault is attributable, what will be the way of making amends?

Answer

Generally no lock is put on the main door of mosques, so that anyone, whenever he wishes, may come to the mosque and worship; moreover, a guard is not appointed in every mosque either — rather, at the prayer times the mu’adhdhin comes and does the work of cleaning the mosque and spreading out the rows (mats).

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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