Selling an endowed property when its income is low

Question

The annual income of a mosque’s endowed land is fifty rupees. If this land is sold and other land bought, then in that case the annual income will be five or six hundred rupees. So, with the consent of the mosque’s mutawalli, may they sell this land and buy other land with greater income, or not?

Answer

The purpose of land that is endowed is that this very land remain and its yields be spent in the way of Allah; the land is not given for trade. Therefore selling it and acquiring land with greater income is not permissible — unless benefit from the endowed land ceases altogether: then its ruling is different, and buying other land in exchange for it and endowing that in its…

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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