Turning a privately owned well into a mandir (a Hindu temple)

Question

Question: A dervish lodge with a graveyard, a mosque and a well are named after Naku Shah and Quddus Shah. The lodge, the mosque and the well are about 500 years old; they have been the property of our forefathers, and now we are in possession of them. The well at this lodge and mosque was built so that the worshippers of the mosque would face no difficulty here. Now, naturally, the water of this well stopped about 25–26 years ago and the well dried up; the well remains in its place and has become a ruin.

Answer

Since that well is the property of your forefathers and you hold it as their heirs, no one has the right to give that well to anyone else for a mandir or the like. Doing so is usurpation (ghasb) and oppression (zulm), which is never permitted.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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