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Fatwa CenterRuling on building a mosque which has apartments above it
Question
There is a big room in the basement of our 7 story apartment and it was not reserved for any specific purpose by the builders and I presume that this room is the common property of all the 244 flat owners.. Uptill now it was being used as a Musalla. Now some people want to convert it into a Sharaee masjid. Can they do so when there are residences above the room. Can they make it a masjid with majority vote and consensus is not necessary. Will those who want to keep it as a Musalla and not convert into Masjid be deemed as kaafirs . There are all"types" of masajids in the vicinity within a distance of one to two furlongs.
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and messenger.
Mosques are built to meet the people’s needs for having a place to perform the prayer; if there are enough mosques for the Muslim community in the area, there is no need for designating that room as a mosque. In fact, Muslim scholars underlined that when a mosque is built for no real need, it is considered a mosque of dissent (or harm) because it causes disunity among Muslims.
However, if people really need a new mosque and this room was a common property of all the building’s owners, it is impermissible to designate it as a mosque except with the consent of all the owners. A majority vote would not serve as a lawful solution in this case because the unlawful acquisition of people’s property by coercion is impermissible.
In any case, it is permissible to buy the shares of those who refuse to give up their shares in the room for building the mosque. If all the owners give their consent to designate a room as a mosque, it is allowable to designate it as a mosque and make it an endowment. There is no problem if the mosque has flats built above it, according to the preponderant opinion of Muslim scholars.
Allaah Knows best.
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