Spending Zakah on the Maintenance of Mosques
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. He says: I have zakah on my wealth. Is it better to give it to the poor and the needy, or is it better to spend this zakah on the maintenance of one of the mosques that needs maintenance?
Answer:
No, my brother, it is not permissible to spend it on mosques, neither for construction nor for maintenance. Mosques are funded from donations. As for zakah, it is not to be spent except in its eight categories, which Allah has limited it to. "Indeed, alms are only for the poor and the needy..." to the end of the verse. So do not spend zakah on acts of righteousness, such as teaching the Qur'an or building mosques or schools; zakah is not valid for these.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. He says: I have zakah on my wealth. Is it better to give it to the poor and the needy, or is it better to spend this zakah on the maintenance of one of the mosques that needs maintenance?
Answer:
No, my brother, it is not permissible to spend it on mosques, neither for construction nor for maintenance. Mosques are funded from donations. As for zakah, it is not to be spent except in its eight categories, which Allah has limited it to. "Indeed, alms are only for the poor and the needy..." to the end of the verse. So do not spend zakah on acts of righteousness, such as teaching the Qur'an or building mosques or schools; zakah is not valid for these.
Source
شرح إغاثة اللهفان من مصائد الشيطان لابن القيم، فصل في القلب الميت — islamhouse.com (1:07:08)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.