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Giving Zakat For Building Masjid
Assalam-O-Aleaukum,
My question is related to giving Zakat, I understood Ghamidi Sahab’s teachings about giving Zakat for any action which brings Khair to humanity and Muslim communities, which includes the construction of a Masjid/Mosque/a place for Muslims to worship, and also that it is not necessarily obligatory to let the recipient of the Zakat know that one is giving the funds/help from his/her Zakat.
Now with these two teachings of Ghamidi Sahab in mind, my question is that I want to support building/construction of a mosque from my zakat funds, however, the organization, performing the construction clearly states on their website and also during their fundraisers, that Zakat funds can not be given for the construction of Masjid and therefore we do not accept Zakat for this project, what should one do in this situation, please provide guidance
Thanks
Masood Ahmed
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6 Replies
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Giving Zakat For Building Masjid
updated 1 year, 7 months ago
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6
Replies
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As you have stated, Ghamidi sahab maintains in the light of Quran verse 60:9 that zakat can be spent فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ (fi sabilillah):for serving Islam and for the welfare of the citizens. However, if the institution that you want to give your zakat to has clearly stated that they do not want to accept zakat then the only two options remain as a) educate the management of your institution about the law of zakat; or b) spend your zakat in another prescribed manner.
For reference, here’s a comprehensive resource on zakat including prescribed heads in the light of the Quran:
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Thanks, I will look into the resources, in fact, most of them I have already read/watched, however, would appreciate it if you can also take into account the second reference, i.e. the recipients of the Zakat don’t necessarily need to be told explicitly that this is zakat money, without going into the details, I am sure you understand where I am coming from i.e. the common belief of Ahl-e-Sunnah that Zakat can not be used for construction of masjid and the background of this belief of their’s, so my question is can I still support them through Zakat funds without telling them that it is Zakat, keep in mind they are not accepting Zakat for masjid construction because of the same beliefs that their predecessors had when it comes to using Zakat for Masjid construction.
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Under normal circumstance one need not tell the recipient about zakat. However, if the recipient has already asked explicitly to not give them zakat then one should refrain from deceiving them.
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I agree, thanks for the enlightenment, I appreciate it
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Brother Masood. Perhaps mosque management has a point here. They perhaps think that many a times people overlook more deserving person of Zakat and instead give it to mosque. On the side of caution perhaps they decided not to accept Zakat.
To my understanding of Quran giving an order of priority, parents, adult children, siblings, uncles, aunts, cousins, neighbors, servants, immigrants, and many more people have a higher priority over Zakat than a mosque.
In a poor country like Pakistan, it is highly unlikely that all the above mentioned person related to a Zakat payer are well to do before the Zakat payer considers giving Zakat to a mosque.
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Brother Nadeem,
JazakAllah Khair for your response, I appreciate your taking the time and responding to my query, however, the reason for them not to accept Zakat is not what you mentioned, there is a whole background based on which none of the mainstream Ahl-e-Sunnah-O-Jamat, allow Zakat money to be used for Masjid “construction”. The key word is construction, they will happily take funds to pay the wages of the Immam and Moazin, even to construct a room/Hujra for them within the masjid, however, when it comes to using the funds for actual masjid construction they don’t allow it, I don’t want to go into the details of their beliefs here, that will be a separate discussion, however, I can assure you the reason you listed are not playing any role here 🙂
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