What is the ruling on spending large sums of money on a minaret?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : The minaret.
The Shaykh : Huh?
The questioner : ...
The Shaykh : Yes.
The questioner : In some mosques, the cost of the minaret is approximately the same as building a mosque. What is your opinion?
The Shaykh : In my opinion, this is a mistake. Lengthening the minaret and spending a great deal on it is undoubtedly a mistake. But the problem with people now, the common folk, is that they ask, "Why didn't you put one up?" Even though the minaret itself did not exist in the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). If one were to build a modest minaret, they would say... it is sufficient for the mosques. So it is better to say that a minaret should be built so that those outside the mosque can identify it as a mosque... Yes.
The questioner : ...
The Shaykh : What?
The questioner : ...
The Shaykh : Huh?
The questioner : ...
The Shaykh : Yes.
The questioner : In some mosques, the cost of the minaret is approximately the same as building a mosque. What is your opinion?
The Shaykh : In my opinion, this is a mistake. Lengthening the minaret and spending a great deal on it is undoubtedly a mistake. But the problem with people now, the common folk, is that they ask, "Why didn't you put one up?" Even though the minaret itself did not exist in the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). If one were to build a modest minaret, they would say... it is sufficient for the mosques. So it is better to say that a minaret should be built so that those outside the mosque can identify it as a mosque... Yes.
The questioner : ...
The Shaykh : What?
The questioner : ...