Building a religious madrasa on a graveyard

Question

There is a mosque in the middle of the town, and within its enclosure there is a graveyard. People want to put up a building on it for a religious madrasa. After how much time has passed may the building be constructed?

Answer

A graveyard is endowed as waqf so that the dead may be buried in it; there is no right to use it for any other purpose besides this. However, if this graveyard has become so old that the dead have by now turned to dust, and new dead are not buried there — another graveyard exists for that — and if it is left empty there is a fear that people will usurp it, then in such a…

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

Preview. The full text opens with JavaScript enabled.