Converting Churches into Mosques
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
The Shaykh’s student, may Allah grant you success, mentioned, may Allah preserve you, in a previous lesson in the answer to one of the questions that it is permissible to convert churches into mosques. So how do you reconcile that with the author’s statement regarding the prohibition of using the sites of the polytheists as places of worship?
Answer:
Because originally, churches have become places where prayer is offered to Allah, unlike the idols. These are shirk (associating partners with Allah); they became idols of shirk. As for the churches, it has become the case that prayer is offered in them to Allah, because Christianity has become a heavenly religion, even though it was altered. And he said: It is forbidden to alter it. Yes.
The Shaykh’s student, may Allah grant you success, mentioned, may Allah preserve you, in a previous lesson in the answer to one of the questions that it is permissible to convert churches into mosques. So how do you reconcile that with the author’s statement regarding the prohibition of using the sites of the polytheists as places of worship?
Answer:
Because originally, churches have become places where prayer is offered to Allah, unlike the idols. These are shirk (associating partners with Allah); they became idols of shirk. As for the churches, it has become the case that prayer is offered in them to Allah, because Christianity has become a heavenly religion, even though it was altered. And he said: It is forbidden to alter it. Yes.
Source
شرح قرة عيون الموحدين في تحقيق دعوة الأنبياء والمرسلين، باب لا يذبح لله بمكان يذبح فيه لغير الله — islamhouse.com (59:52)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.