Some students of knowledge leave their books in the mosque for a long time; what should the imam of the mosque do with them?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. He says: Sometimes some students of knowledge leave their books in the mosque for a long time, and it is not known who the owner is. What should the imam of the mosque do with them? Is it permissible for him to sell them and use the proceeds for the needs of the mosque?
Answer:
No, he does not sell them. If he knows the owner, he invites him to take them, or invites him to collect them. As for if he does not know the owner, they have the ruling of an endowment (waqf); they remain in the mosque for whoever wants to read them, or they are moved to a public library where everyone can benefit from them, a general charitable library for reading.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. He says: Sometimes some students of knowledge leave their books in the mosque for a long time, and it is not known who the owner is. What should the imam of the mosque do with them? Is it permissible for him to sell them and use the proceeds for the needs of the mosque?
Answer:
No, he does not sell them. If he knows the owner, he invites him to take them, or invites him to collect them. As for if he does not know the owner, they have the ruling of an endowment (waqf); they remain in the mosque for whoever wants to read them, or they are moved to a public library where everyone can benefit from them, a general charitable library for reading.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [1857 -3022] يترك بعض طلبة العلم كتبهم في المسجد مدة طويلة، فماذا يصنع بها إمام المسجد؟ — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.