Musjid

Appointing a trustee (mutawalli) for a musalla or masjid who lives at a distance from the masjid

Q: Kindly provide an answer to the following questions:

1. Is it permissible to appoint a trustee (mutawalli) for a musalla or masjid who lives about 20km away from the masjid and who does not come for salaah except about once in 3 months?

2. Is it permissible to appoint a trustee (mutawalli) for a musalla or masjid who lives about 6km away from the masjid and who does not come for salaah except about once a month? And he has very little knowledge of what is going on in the musalla/masjid with regards to the imaam, the water and lights, the geyser, etc.

3. If a person is appointed as a trustee, what are his responsibilities towards the musalla and towards the musallis?

Collective forms of ibaadah taking precedence over individual forms of ibaadah in a Musjid

Q: Our Imaam mentioned a few points, which I wanted to clarify. The gist of the points is that in the Masjid, collective forms of Ibaadah always take precedence over individual.

1. If 5 minutes are allotted to read sunnah salaah before the khutbah, one should complete salaah in that time, to avoid inconvenience to the imaam, who has to wait for people who go over this time.

My question is, what if someone takes six or seven minutes. Is this incorrect or should the imaam wait patiently for such a person?

2. If after salaah, a jamaat is having a lecture, or there is some type of programme, the muqtadis should try and complete their salaah quickly or move to the back, so that the programme can commence as soon as possible.

Are these points correct?

Selling leftover hardware items purchased for a musjid

Q: There are a lot of hardware items at our Musjid that are stored away for future use if need arises. Over the years, whenever there is a building project, there is always "leftover items /material". These include bricks, sand cement, plumbing/electrical items... Some items are used, some are brand new and some cannot be used again for the purpose for which it was purchased, but may have some other benefits like "broken tiles" or a few odd colour tiles or broken doors etc.

1. What must be done with these if there is no use for them now and maybe even later on?

2. Can these items be sold to Musallees or any other person and those monies used for the Musjid maintenance?

3. Can the items that are of no use, be given away for free.

4. Amongst the items, sometimes there are some things like, a drill, long ladder, wheelbarrow, spades etc. A Musallee wants to borrow this item. Is this allowed?

Musjid Open Days

Q: Is it permissible to have a musjid open day where non-Muslims are invited to the musjid with the intention of dawah and presenting Islam to them? In today’s times, we find that this practice is becoming common in various places. Is this practice in conformance with the sunnah?

Taking slippers of the musjid home

Q: I once lost a pair of slippers in the musjid and the khadim bhai gave me a pair from in front of the bathroom to wear. His intention was that I should wear them home and then return with them to put them back. However, I ignorantly started to wear them as my own. A couple of years passed and by the taufeeq of Allah Azza Wa Jal, I realized that they were not mine to keep and amends had to be made.

The slippers are still with me but they are torn and very battered. The underside is completely smoothed out so they are a hazard to wear now. I did take a pair of my own slippers and gave them to the musjid's bathrooms as compensation. But I did not think that it was sufficient. I bought a new pair of slippers with the intention of giving them to the musjid as well but they are still in my possession. Should I give some money to the musjid's donation box to make it even?

Guidelines for a mutawalli of a musjid or madrasah

Q: I wanted some guidelines for being a Mutawalli of a Trust and Musjid or Madrasah.

1. Does the Mutawalli have to follow Shar'ī rulings or government law?

2. Is it true that the Mutawalli cannot be the one who places protocols against the sharī'ah in the Musjid?

3. Can the Musjid Trust Money be used for buying flower pots and flowers for decorating the Musjid?

4. Please provide some guidelines for being a Mutawalli of a Trust and Musjid or Madrasah.