INTERIOR OF A MOSQUE AT CAIRO. (Dr. Ebers.)
If a man appropriate his land for the benefit of a Masjid, and to provide for its repairs and necessaries, such as oil, &c., and when nothing more is required for the Masjid, to apply what remains to poor Muslims the appropriation is lawful.
If a man has appropriated his land for the benefit of a Masjid, without any ultimate destination for the poor, the appropriation is lawful, according to all opinions.
If a man gives money for the repairs of a Masjid, also for its maintenance and for its benefit, it is valid. For if it cannot operate as a waqf, it operates as a transfer by way of gift to the Masjid, and the establishing of property in this manner to a Masjid is valid, being completed by taking possession.
If a person should say, “I have bequeathed a third of my property to the Masjid,” it would not be lawful, unless he say “to expend on the Masjid.” So if he were to say, “I have bequeathed a third of my property to the lamps of the Masjid,” it would not be lawful unless he say, “to give light with it in the Masjid.” If he say, “I have given my house for a Masjid,” it is valid as a transfer, requiring delivery. (Fatāwā-i-ʿĀlamgīrī, vol. ii. p. 545; Hidāyah, vol. ii. p. 356; Baillie’s Digest, pp. 504–605.)
The Shīʿah law regarding the endowment of Masjids, or land for the benefit of Masjids, does not differ in any important particular from that of the Sunnīs. But there is a provision in the Shīʿah law regarding the sale of an endowment which is important.
If dissensions arise among the persons in whose favour the waqf is made, and there is apprehension of the property being destroyed, while on the other hand the sale thereof is productive of benefit, then, in that case, its sale is lawful.
If a house belonging to a waqf should fall into ruins, the space would not cease to be waqf, nor would its sale be lawful. If, however, dissensions should arise among the persons for whom it was appropriated, insomuch as to give room for apprehension that it will be destroyed, its sale would be lawful.
And even if there should be no such difference, nor any room for such apprehensions, but the sale would be more for the advantage of the parties interested, some are of opinion that the sale would be lawful; but the approved doctrine is to forbid it. (Mafātiḥ; Sharāʾiʿu ʾl-Islām, p. 239.)
AL-MASJIDU ʾL-AQṢĀ (المسجد الاقصى). Lit. “The Most Distant Mosque.” The temple at Jerusalem erected by Solomon, called also al-Baitu ʾl-Muqaddas, or “the Holy House.” Known also in Muḥammadan literature as aṣ-Ṣak͟hraḥ, “the Rock,” from which it is believed Muḥammad ascended to heaven on the occasion of his celestial journey. (See Qurʾān, [Sūrah xvii].)