Endowment: Ruling on Selling Surplus Donated Materials for Masjid Needs

Practical Laws of Islam as per the teachings of Imam Khamenei

Endowment: Ruling on Selling Surplus Donated Materials for Masjid Needs

English:

Question #2078:

A person donated building materials to a masjid. Some of these materials have become surplus to the requirements of the building. Is it permissible to sell the extra materials and use the proceeds in settling the outstanding debts incurred by the masjid management and in meeting its needs?

Answer #2078:

Should the building materials and machinery have been designated for the purpose of building a masjid and were no longer the donor’s own property, the useful ones cannot be sold — even for another masjid. Instead, what could be used of these materials, in the intended masjid or in other masjids, should be directed to serve those purposes. If the donor has confined the use of the materials to building this very masjid, the surplus materials should revert to his ownership where he can have the right of disposal over them.

-Imam Khamenei, Practical Laws of Islam, Importance and Conditions of Endowments