Leaving a Mosque Deserted Because of Mutual Discord

Question

Because of mutual discord someone said, “This mosque is ours.” So the other parties set up a separate mosque, and they set it up on a place over whose land a lawsuit is under way. The one in whose possession that land is built the mosque with the idea that the first mosque would become deserted and no one would go there to pray. And now there are no worshippers in the first mosque — they are few; one or two men pray there. So what is the ruling on praying in this mosque under litigation?

Answer

A very wrong thing was done in leaving the first mosque deserted because of mutual discord; its consequence is very grave. If the mosque was built in another place, and there is no grave in front of it, and the owner gave that place for the mosque — or it was from before a waqf for a graveyard, but now the dead are no longer buried there, rather another place exists for burial…

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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