Building a Basement beneath a Mosque and a Hall above It

Question

In our city of Indaur (Indore), a Jami‘ mosque about a hundred years old was demolished and rebuilt anew. The committee formed for the new construction of the mosque decided by mutual consultation that a basement would be built beneath the mosque and a spacious hall above the mosque; the basement would be used as a community hall, and the upper storey of the mosque for a madrasa, and, on the occasion of celebrations — weddings, ‘aqiqa and the like — for feeding people and lodging the members of wedding…

Answer

(a) A place that is made a mosque is entirely a mosque, below and above; any act there that is contrary to the sanctity of the mosque is forbidden. No right of a servant of Allah (haqq al-‘abd, i.e. a human right) should attach to any place of the mosque, whether its upper part or its lower part.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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