Selling Land Given for the Interests of the Mosque

Question

Do the mutawalli (trustee) or other people have the right to sell land endowed to a mosque in order to build the mosque, or not? If people endowed lands for the mosque — some of them have died and their heirs are present, some are alive — and at the time of the waqf did not specify for which work of the mosque it would be used, whether it may be sold or not, and so on, making no explicit statement, then in this situation may these lands now be sold with the permission of the heirs of the waqif (endower)

Answer

No one has the right to sell land that has been endowed: neither the mutawalli, nor the waqif, nor the waqif’s heirs. As for land that was given for the interests (masalih) of the mosque, if the mutawalli, the waqif, the waqif’s heirs and the people of the neighbourhood all, by mutual consultation, wish to sell it for building the mosque, this is permitted.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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