Spending Money Given for Iftar on Other Mosque Purposes

Question

There are two or three mosques in our town. In blessed Ramadan, people from here who are in Africa send us money as donations for iftar. The mutawalli (trustee) of the mosque here spends some of this money on iftar and most of it on other mosque work; and sometimes he spends most of this money on iftar and some on other mosque work; and sometimes equal amounts are spent on both. In all three of these cases, is it permissible in the Shariʿa that from money received solely for iftar some is also spent on the mosque?

Answer

When the givers give solely for iftar, it is not permissible to spend it on another purpose without their permission, because in such a case the mutawalli is the agent (wakil) of the giver, and it is not valid for an agent to spend contrary to the instruction of his principal (muwakkil). So it is in the books of fiqh.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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