Rules for spending donations collected to build a mosque

A question from a community in a European country collecting donations to build a mosque after their rented mosque was ordered demolished, in which Jordan's General Iftaa Department answered that the money takes the ruling of an endowment and may be spent only as the donors intended. ¹

The questioners said their rented mosque in a European country was to be demolished to widen a road, so they collected donations for a new mosque and sent people to other cities and countries to raise funds; they asked whether those collectors could take travel tickets and food from the money, whether the money counts as an endowment, and whether it may be grown through trade. ¹

The Department answered that money collected to build an endowment such as a mosque takes the ruling of an endowment: it has left its donors' ownership, no one is free to dispose of it, and it remains so until the building is complete. ¹ It noted that zakat money may not be collected for building mosques, because the recipients of zakat are limited to eight categories; mosques are built from voluntary charity and donations. ¹ It said that nothing collected for the mosque may be spent on travel, food and the like unless the donor permits a set amount after learning the facts, in which case spending must be reasonable and serve the purpose. ¹ For investing the donations, it required that donors be told of this when the money is collected, since a donor may not accept a delay in his money reaching its purpose or its exposure to loss, and his condition counts; it cited Zakariyya al-Ansari's Fath al-Wahhab and the gloss I'anat al-Talibin on following the endower's stipulation. ¹ It closed by saying that whoever holds this money holds it in trust, and if he spends it on something else or fails to safeguard it, he sins and must make it good. ¹

Jordan's General Iftaa Department published this fatwa on aliftaa.jo as no. 3808, dated 25 September 2023. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.