Spending Zakat and Fitra on Building a Mosque and the Like

Question

In a certain village a mosque has stood for about twelve years, but its enclosure wall (the walls around the courtyard), gate and the like could not be built; moreover, the mosque itself has now collapsed, and the financial condition of the Muslims there is extremely precarious, because of which the mosque has remained in that state until now. Because of their poor financial condition these people have lost heart. Now they have a firm intention: the money that comes in, for example from fitra (sadaqat al-fitr)

Answer

Giving the said sums away in charity (tasadduq) is wajib, that is, it is necessary to make some poor person who is not a sayyid their owner. Without transferring ownership, spending them on the mosque, the Eidgah, or on floor-coverings and the like for the biradari is not permissible [the edition has “permissible” — evidently a misprint; corrected according to the sense of the…

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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