Turning Someone Else’s Land into a Mosque

Question

Zayd had bought a piece of land from a certain landlord. Zayd went away to Pakistan. The department of the Custodian of Evacuee Property — which officially takes into its possession such houses and lands as have no owner — when it saw that Zayd had gone to Pakistan, took his land into its possession, that is, it became the government’s. These officials of the department used to live in the house of that very landlord from whom Zayd had bought this land.

Answer

Those who built the mosque are not owners in any respect whatsoever; they have, as it were, usurped (ghasb) the land and built a mosque on it. Praying there is makruh. When Bakr, Khalid and ‘Umar bought that land, they became the owners according to the regulations.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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