Renting Out Mosque Property for a Cinema

Question

Our mosque has an empty plot lying separate from the mosque. The cinema people want to rent it: they will put up a board for their film on this place and pay thirty rupees a month. Can it be rented out or not? If it can, what will its money be spent on? Can the rent money be given to the sweepers as salary or not?

Answer

Cinema (film) is a sin (ma‘siya); renting out the mosque's place for it or for its board is assisting sin (i‘anat ma‘siya), and it should be avoided. Even if some leeway can be found according to some opinion, great caution is still needed because the matter concerns a mosque.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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