Paying the imam's rent from mosque donations

A question on paying the rent of an imam's home outside the mosque from the donations box, in which Jordan's General Iftaa Department answered that donations are spent according to what they were collected for, and that the mosque committee may rent a home for the imam with the approval of the awqaf director. ¹

The questioner asked whether the rent of the imam's home may be paid from the donations box, given that the home is outside the mosque. ¹

The Department answered that what the mosque care committee collects in the name of the mosque's costs and repairs is treated like an endowment for the mosque, and the donor's stipulation is followed unless it contradicts the sharia. ¹ It divided what is endowed for a mosque into what serves the mosque itself, such as carpets, equipment, books and its building, and what serves those who run it, such as the imam's or muezzin's home; donations collected for the latter may be spent on the imam's home with the permission of the endowment's administrator, the Ministry of Awqaf, represented by the committee. ¹ If the committee did not tell people the purpose, the matter is left to the committee, as delegated by the ministry, with regard to the interests of the mosque and its facilities, and it recommended collecting donations in the name of 'the mosque's interests'. ¹ It noted that article 25 of the Mosques and Qur'an Houses Regulation no. 95 of 2004 lets the committee handle other matters the director approves in writing, so it may ask the awqaf director for approval to rent a home for the imam. ¹

Jordan's General Iftaa Department published this fatwa on aliftaa.jo as no. 3859, dated 18 March 2024. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.