Building a Second Mosque Without Necessity

Question

Question: There is a mosque in which the five daily prayers and the Jumuʿa are held. Adjoining it is the house of Zayd, and Zayd is immersed in sin and depravity (fisq and fujur). For this reason people stopped praying in this mosque, built another, new mosque and began praying in it. Will this mosque now have the ruling of a masjid dirar (a mosque built to cause harm) or not? If not, will prayer in the new mosque be valid or not, and will those people be sinful or not?

Answer

Building another mosque and establishing the Jumuʿa in it merely because of the sin and depravity of one person, such that the first mosque becomes deserted, is not right according to the Sharia. However, if the other mosque was built out of fear of strife and discord, that is a valid Sharʿi excuse.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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