The Mosque Floor Was Raised in Rebuilding and a Basement Made Below: Where Should Prayer Be Performed?

Question

An old mosque was demolished for the purpose of expansion and rebuilt. At the very outset, when the foundation was laid, a proposal to keep the mosque floor higher than the old floor was unanimously agreed upon. But instead of raising it by filling it with earth, the easier course was considered to be this: to raise the plinth of the walls, build pillars in the middle, and, instead of filling the void with earth, cast a concrete slab (lintel)

Answer

The jurists have written that climbing onto the roof of the Bayt Allah and praying on it is makruh. By analogy with this, it is written in al-Fatawa al-‘Alamgiriyya that prayer on the roof of any mosque is makruh; hence going up onto the roof of a mosque and praying there at the time of intense heat is also makruh: [ar]الصعود على سطح كل مسجد مكروه، ولهذا إذا اشتد الحر يكره أن…

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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