A mosque below and a residence above

Question

Here in Mumbai, in one or two places, some benevolent people have set up a mosque on their own premises; in one of them even the Friday prayer is held. But the problematic point is that above both of these mosques there is also a residence, and everyone lives there too. Will it be regarded as having the status of a mosque? And may a second congregation (jama‘a) be held there or not? And will the ruling of a mosque be applied to it or not?

Answer

Until it is endowed as waqf, the right of ownership over it ended and its access-way made entirely separate, and everyone given full freedom to come and pray in it, it will not be a mosque in the Shar‘i sense. That the owners themselves live in the upper part in their capacity as owners, while the adhan and congregational prayer have begun to be held in the lower part — this…

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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