Changing the charitable purpose of the donated money

17-2-2009 | IslamWeb

Question:

Assalam Alaikum,
I would like to take a moment to ask you a question regarding the raising of funds for Islamic community works. I was once the Chair of a community organization, which was responsible for conducting research on the Muslim Minority in Montreal and initiating public programs. We managed to raise hundreds of dollars through sales at Jumah but unfortunately the organization seized to exist soon after and the money has not been used since then.
The question I pose is this, must the money be used for research since that was the intentionn by which people donated or can I donate the money to any Islamic organization?
I thank you in advance for taking the time to answer my question. May Allah(swt) bless you. Jazakh Allah Khairun,
Wasalaam Alaikum

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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 is His slave and Messenger.

 

In principle, the money that is donated in charity should be spent according to charitable fields which are specified by the donors. However, in case the donors did not specify a particular field, and the organization which gathers the donations use them for a specific purpose that is previously declared, or gives it to a fund that carries out charitable works, then it should only be used in these fields.

However, since you mentioned that among the work of this organization is that it carries out general programmes for the community, without the donors conditioning that this money be spent on research purposes only, then we hope that it is permissible to give this money to any trustworthy charitable organization so that it will spend it in any charitable fields from which the Muslim community benefits.

Allaah Knows best.