The ruling on utilizing the ground floor beneath the mosque

The questioner:
The questioner asks: What is the ruling on utilizing the ground floor located beneath the mosque, provided it does not harm the worshippers and does not crowd them?

The Shaykh:
The ground floor is an accessory to the mosque.

The questioner:
It was a basement.

The Shaykh:
The basement and the private room—they call it a private room—this belongs to the mosque people, so it is not permissible for him to use it for worldly affairs or his personal interests. This is not permissible because it is a mosque. What is underneath it and what is above it is all attached to the mosque; all of this is the property of the mosque. So it is not permissible for him to benefit from it for his personal needs. Yes.

The questioner:
This includes the apartments above the mosque.

The Shaykh:
If a mosque is built above apartments, meaning the building was constructed with shops or residences on the lower level and a mosque on the upper level, there is no harm if it was established in this way. However, if there is an existing mosque and we come and dispose of it by taking rooms, residences, or shops underneath it and a mosque above it, this is not permissible. It has been established that this is a mosque and it is not permissible to dispose of it. But when you construct a building and make the lower level residences or shops and the upper level a mosque, there is no harm because it was established in this way. Yes.