Vacating part of a mosque for qawwali and the like, or declaring it one’s property and giving another place in exchange

Question

(1) What is the ruling on using part of a functioning mosque for one’s personal affairs, on condition that the form of that part has been altered and it has been separated from the mosque? (2) Can a functioning or non-functioning mosque in any case be used for personal affairs or not? (3) Can part of the mosque, or the whole mosque, be removed from there and built in another place or not? (4)

Answer

(1) A mosque is waqf; separating any part of it and using it for one’s personal affairs is impermissible according to the Shari‘a. A mosque belongs to Allah from beneath the earth (taht al-thara) to above the Pleiades (fawq al-thurayya); the right of the servant is cut off from it.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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