Building a Mosque with Impure Wealth

Question

A certain man is a landholder whose income has four sources: (1) cultivation of land, (2) trade, (3) bribes, (4) interest. Most of the income is from interest. Out of this combined income he had a mosque built, and forty years have now passed since its construction. Some people pray in it and some do not. Is it permissible to pray in it or not?

Answer

Those according to whom India is dar al-harb (the abode of war) hold it permissible to take interest from disbelievers. So if the interest was obtained from disbelievers, then according to those scholars it is valid, and prayer in the mosque built with it is permissible and sound according to the Shari‘a.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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