Disposing of books placed in the mosque
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
Some people place some books in the mosque because they want to get rid of them, without having the intention of making them an endowment or anything similar to an endowment. Some people have extra books and want to get rid of them, so they put them in the mosque. These books are the clearest
The Shaykh:
This is a sign that they are an endowment.
The questioner:
If these books are not suitable for the mosque, for example because they are scattered parts of books or something like that, is it permissible for a person to take them and buy with their value something that benefits the people and place it in the mosque as an endowment?
The Shaykh:
No, transfer them to the public library if they harm the mosque and do not benefit the people of the mosque. If the public library contains evil, it is forbidden; if it contains benefit and is not suitable for the mosque, transfer them to the public library. This is because the objective of the Companions when they came to the mosque was that it had no specific order, because the time is determined by the people. If a mosque is built and opened to the people, that is the time. And when he said to the people
The questioner:
May Allah forgive you, a person might have several parts. May Allah forgive you, and the owner of these books means he is in no need of them, for instance, his copy of a book is missing the second or fifth part, and he finds these parts in the mosque, so he takes these parts and then buys something for the mosque from *Riyad al-Saliheen* so that the general public can benefit from it. I do not know if this is permissible, may Allah forgive you, or not?
The Shaykh:
No, because in the mosque, a person leaves his office, or a person leaves the mosque office, or a person leaves the bookshop, based on what the owner placed there, unless it is something that harms people, in which case it is removed from the people so it does not harm them, such as corrupt books that are ruined and do not remain in the mosque.
Some people place some books in the mosque because they want to get rid of them, without having the intention of making them an endowment or anything similar to an endowment. Some people have extra books and want to get rid of them, so they put them in the mosque. These books are the clearest
The Shaykh:
This is a sign that they are an endowment.
The questioner:
If these books are not suitable for the mosque, for example because they are scattered parts of books or something like that, is it permissible for a person to take them and buy with their value something that benefits the people and place it in the mosque as an endowment?
The Shaykh:
No, transfer them to the public library if they harm the mosque and do not benefit the people of the mosque. If the public library contains evil, it is forbidden; if it contains benefit and is not suitable for the mosque, transfer them to the public library. This is because the objective of the Companions when they came to the mosque was that it had no specific order, because the time is determined by the people. If a mosque is built and opened to the people, that is the time. And when he said to the people
The questioner:
May Allah forgive you, a person might have several parts. May Allah forgive you, and the owner of these books means he is in no need of them, for instance, his copy of a book is missing the second or fifth part, and he finds these parts in the mosque, so he takes these parts and then buys something for the mosque from *Riyad al-Saliheen* so that the general public can benefit from it. I do not know if this is permissible, may Allah forgive you, or not?
The Shaykh:
No, because in the mosque, a person leaves his office, or a person leaves the mosque office, or a person leaves the bookshop, based on what the owner placed there, unless it is something that harms people, in which case it is removed from the people so it does not harm them, such as corrupt books that are ruined and do not remain in the mosque.
Source
شرح بلوغ المرام [ ابن باز ] [ الشرح الجديد ]، تتمة أحاديث في النكاح — islamhouse.com (21:57)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.