A member of a society is not allowed to take a decision alone
10-5-2011 | IslamWeb
Question:
We are a group of students in Ukraine, and we are members of an Islamic-oriented social society. The society collected donations from Muslim students for the sake of serving Islam. The fund had only 300 (in cash); one hundred of which was gifted to one of the wealthy religious Muslim Arabs because he had a newborn baby. This is despite the fact that this man is not a member of the society. Another hundred was given as a present to the head of the cultural committee because he had a newborn child. This was done without the knowledge of some of the society's members. Is this permissible?
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.
You, the members of this society, are entrusted with this money and it is impermissible to violate the conditions of the society as students donated to that society knowing that this money will be spent for the sake of Islam. If you spent the money in a way that is different from that for which the donators made their donations, this would be betrayal of trust and nepotism at the expense of the interests of Muslims. Allaah The Almighty Says (what means): {Indeed, Allaah commands you to render trusts to whom they are due} [Quran 4:58] The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said: "Every person is a caretaker and will be held accountable for those under his care before Allaah." [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]
The fact that this was made without the knowledge of the rest of the members indicates that some people took the decision without the agreement of all the members and this might lead to dissension and separation. If the rest of the members knew about this and agreed, this would be impermissible as it contradicts the intention of the donators. Verily, Muslims should fear Allaah and be trustworthy in matters for which they are responsible.
Allaah Knows best.