A mosque-building committee hiring a car from building donations

A question about a mosque-building committee hiring a car from building donations, in which Jordan's General Iftaa Department answered that no part of building donations may be spent on anything other than their purpose, and that the remedy is for the committee to collect donations for administrative costs, informing donors. ¹

The questioner asked whether a mosque-building committee may hire a private car to travel between governorates collecting donations, paying the hire from the donations collected. ¹

The Department answered that mosque-building committees may not spend any of the donations for building the mosque on anything other than the purpose they were collected for, because donations are spent according to the donor's intention and condition, the donor stands in the place of an endower (waqif), and the endower's conditions are to be honoured. ¹ It cited Imam al-Haramayn al-Juwayni in Nihayat al-Matlab (8/362) that the endower's conditions govern the qualities, shares and order of beneficiaries, and al-Shirazi in al-Muhadhdhab (2/328) that an endowment's yield is spent according to the endower's conditions because the Companions made endowments and wrote down their conditions. ¹ It concluded that none of the donations may be spent on car hire or anything else, and that if those in charge wish to avoid sin, they should collect some donations specifically for the committee's administrative costs, on condition that donors are told. ¹

Jordan's General Iftaa Department published this fatwa on aliftaa.jo as no. 4217, dated 12 February 2026. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.