A prayer area that is no longer needed and is intended to be used for other purposes
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Fatwa No. ( 17609 )
Praise be to Allah alone, and peace and blessings be upon the one after whom there is no prophet. Having reviewed the matter submitted to His Eminence the Grand Mufti by the questioner, the Director of the Al-Qunfudhah Hospital, and referred to the Committee by the General Secretariat of the Council of Senior Scholars under number (348) and date 20/1/1416 AH, the questioner asked the following:
There is a space within the hospital’s internal facilities that was prepared for prayer inside the hospital. It was used as a prayer area for a period of time, then closed due to work conditions, as there is a congregational mosque located within the hospital’s walls among its facilities, which is sufficient and not burdensome for the employees, workers, and visitors to pray in. There is an urgent need to use this closed internal prayer area for some of the clinics that require it, in order to benefit from it, due to the narrowness of the hospital departments and their inability to meet the needs of the work. Question: Is it permissible, according to the Shari'ah, to use this prayer area as a clinic or offices for the hospital due to the need of the work, given that there is a sufficient mosque in the hospital, as we have mentioned?
After studying the inquiry, the Committee responded that if the matter is as described, it is permissible for the hospital to use the prayer area that is no longer needed for other purposes, because this prayer area does not take on the ruling of a mosque in terms of being an endowment or otherwise.
And success is from Allah, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family, and his Companions.
Praise be to Allah alone, and peace and blessings be upon the one after whom there is no prophet. Having reviewed the matter submitted to His Eminence the Grand Mufti by the questioner, the Director of the Al-Qunfudhah Hospital, and referred to the Committee by the General Secretariat of the Council of Senior Scholars under number (348) and date 20/1/1416 AH, the questioner asked the following:
There is a space within the hospital’s internal facilities that was prepared for prayer inside the hospital. It was used as a prayer area for a period of time, then closed due to work conditions, as there is a congregational mosque located within the hospital’s walls among its facilities, which is sufficient and not burdensome for the employees, workers, and visitors to pray in. There is an urgent need to use this closed internal prayer area for some of the clinics that require it, in order to benefit from it, due to the narrowness of the hospital departments and their inability to meet the needs of the work. Question: Is it permissible, according to the Shari'ah, to use this prayer area as a clinic or offices for the hospital due to the need of the work, given that there is a sufficient mosque in the hospital, as we have mentioned?
After studying the inquiry, the Committee responded that if the matter is as described, it is permissible for the hospital to use the prayer area that is no longer needed for other purposes, because this prayer area does not take on the ruling of a mosque in terms of being an endowment or otherwise.
And success is from Allah, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family, and his Companions.
Source
www.alifta.gov.sa
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.