Renting Out a Place of Learning

Question

A building was constructed for religious education with the money of the biradari (a kinship or caste community), but those in the city who are responsible for the madrasa, its trustees (amins) and mutawallis (trustees of the waqf), without the consent of the general public, stopped the teaching in this building and rented it out to the government for three hundred rupees a month. Now the children are in difficulty for their education. Is such an act of the trustee and mutawalli permissible in the Shari‘a?

Answer

If a building was constructed for religious education with donations from the general Muslim public, and religious education takes place there, then it is not permissible in the Shari‘a for the mutawalli to rent out such a building in order to obtain money and to stop the religious education. Such a person should not be made mutawalli.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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