What is the ruling on using money donated for iftar to purchase a loudspeaker for the mosque?

Question : The questioner says: A man donated a sum of money for a group iftar in the mosque, but the people of the mosque converted the amount to buy a loudspeaker for the mosque without the owner of the money’s knowledge. What is the ruling on this action?

Answer : Yes, did you hear the question? A man donated money for the iftar of the people in the mosque, but the people of the mosque spent it on buying a loudspeaker. We say this is forbidden (haram) for them, and it is not permissible for them to dispose of it in this manner except with permission. Permission from whom? From the one who gave them the money? If they say, “People preceded us and gave us money for iftar, and the mosque does not need money for iftar,” we say: Then it is obligatory for you to return it to its owner and say, “By Allah, the mosque is now in no need of iftar money. If you see that we should spend it on a loudspeaker, there is no harm.” By the way, I point out two matters regarding the loudspeaker. The first matter is that we have heard that some people put in the loudspeaker what they call “echo” or “reverb.” The reverb sometimes repeats the last letter. It repeats the last letter, and this is forbidden, without doubt. This is because if it repeats the last letter, it has added a letter to the Qur’an. Adding a letter to the Qur’an is forbidden without doubt.
As for if it does not repeat but amplifies the voice, this is also looked into. If it makes the voice of the Qur’an like the voice of songs, this is also forbidden, and it may fall under the saying of Allah the Exalted: . But if it amplifies the voice, yet the voice remains in its natural state and the amplification is mild, then there is no harm.
The second matter is that some people raise their voice in the minaret while they are praying. How great is the harm in this, and how great is the annoyance in this! The one who raises his voice in the minaret has mosques around him, is that not so? Yes. There are people in houses around him. A sick person is groaning and wants to sleep, but he cannot sleep because of this voice. A person is praying alone in his house, and this voice disturbs him. A student is reviewing his studies, and this voice disturbs him. And the congregations of the mosques around him are disturbed and harmed by it, to the point that one of them repeats the verse because the mosque next to him has a loud voice that disturbs him. So he stands, for example, to recite, then says, “I did not catch it,” and repeats it. In fact, it has reached me that in some countries, those who pray behind their imam find that the nearby mosque has an imam with a beautiful voice and good etiquette, so their hearts go to whom? To their imam? No, they leave their imam empty on the left, yes, and then their hearts go to the continuous voice of the other mosque. It has reached me that some of them said “Ameen” while their imam had not reached the point of saying “Ameen.” That is, their imam was reciting “Alhamdulillah, Rabb al-‘alamin,” and he himself was saying “wa al-dallin,” so he said “Ameen,” leaving his poor imam to recite “A’udhu bi-Allah.” They do not fear Allah the Mighty and Majestic that they would spoil the worship of people. And this matter has come explicitly in the Sunnah, with no analogies or opinions or ideas, no, an explicit text in the Sunnah. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) came out to his Companions while they were praying and raising their voices in prayer, and each one was praying for himself. So he said (peace and blessings be upon him): “The one who is praying is conversing with his Lord.” Does the Lord, Mighty and Majestic, need the voice to be raised? No. So do not harm one another in recitation, or he said, “in the Qur’an.” Look, the wording is a clear hadith: “Do not harm one another in recitation.” Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr (may Allah have mercy on him) authenticated this hadith, and look for it in Fayd al-Qadir, the commentary on al-Jami’ al-Saghir. It is an authentic hadith, an explicit text on the subject. This is the subject itself. So if the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade this, the raising of voices by the praying people to one another, and described it as harm, how is it permissible for us to harm people?
There is also another harm in it: if the people head toward the mosque and find that the imam is on the last verse, for example, you find them running for what? To catch the rak’ah or to catch the bowing. This causes them to fall into what the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade them, where he said: “When you hear the iqamah, walk to the prayer, and upon you be tranquility, and do not hasten.”
O my brothers, religion is not by what the intellect approves of. Religion is a Shari’ah, and a person is not permitted to look at what his soul finds comfortable while forgetting the interests of others. I forbid my brothers from praying in the minarets that the salam is given from, and I say: Prepare yourselves for the answer to the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): “Do not harm one another in recitation.” You will be asked about this, as He, the Exalted, said: How many people are harmed by this? Yes, the time is up, and this meeting ends here. I ask Allah the Exalted to conclude our month for us and for you with His forgiveness and His pardon and His pleasure, and to return it to us and to the Muslims with good and blessings. Indeed, He is capable of all things. And I now bid farewell to you all, so upon you be the peace and the mercy of Allah and His blessings, and there is no need for a salam after this.