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:
The basement as well.

The Shaykh:
The basement and the private room—they call it a private room—belong to the mosque. It is not permissible to use them for worldly business or for one’s personal interests. This is not allowed because it is a mosque. What is beneath it and what is above it is all an accessory to the mosque; it is all the property of the mosque. Therefore, 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 a building is constructed with a lower section for shops or residences and a mosque on top—there is no harm in this if it is constructed in this manner. However, if there is an existing mosque and one comes to dispose of it by taking rooms, residences, or shops from beneath it and building a mosque on top, this is not permissible. It has been established that this is a mosque, and it is not permissible to dispose of it. But when one constructs a building, designing the lower section as residences or shops with a mosque on top, there is no harm in this because it is constructed in this manner.