Isn’t spending money extravagently for building mosques haram?
Today, i went to a newly opened huge mosque nearby, which has been the talk of the town for quite some time now..the place is an epitome of luxury and even extravagance,with the whole mosque built in marble, with magnificient chandeliers, hand woven carpets with intricate designs, and even plasma TV screens, for God alone knows what!In fact, poeple(muslims) had come in droves for Jumuah prayer, with camcorders,cell phones and cameras in hand capturing the beauty of the mosque, instead of focusing on their prayers!People were actually talking without even bothering to lower their voices during the qutbah,about the mosque!
I understand that comfort is an added advantage of mosques, but do we really need luxury in mosques?Isn't it better to give all that money to charity or for building something else like orphanages and settling for a simpler mosques?I mean all the things mentioned above, aren't they built for pleasing people instead of Allah(SWT)?What are your thoughts on such actions?
high school slut - i'm not saying we should pray in some run-down place, but aren't A/Cs, a clean comfortable floor and roof/ceiling comfort enough to define a mosque?and please refrain from offending other religions while making your point..i'm sure christians have good-looking enough churches to boast about, but that isn't the point here..
Posted in rug weaving
content rss
February 10th, 2010 at 5:32 am
Bismillahi Rahmani Rahim
Salaam Alaikum wa Rahmatullah
I agree that building an extravagant mosque is a waste of money. Allah will call us to account on the Day of Judgment for how we spent our money. Our community here is small but growing. We will be inshAllah building a new mosque within the next couple of years, and part of me will miss our one-room mosque that we have now. Our new mosque will inshAllah be bigger and more complex, with rooms for classes and a bigger kitchen for iftaars and such, but it won’t be made of luxury materials as you describe. We have so many people in need around the world that I certainly could not agree to wasting money to make our mosque the "talk of the town". More important than how it is built is the message of Islam that is being taught inside.
fi Aman Allah,
Nancy Umm Abdel Hamid
February 10th, 2010 at 5:32 am
I agree with you. In Islam, moderation is the main point. We should not imitate the non-believers in their love for wordly things (materialism, in another word)
edit: to high school slut (haiz..)
i think what the questioner was trying to tell is, what is the point of wasting money unnecessarily when there is so many people around the world who are living in extreme poverty and they deprive food. She/He did not say anything about praying in a ‘bums basements like Christians do’. We should have proper, comfortable and cosy place to pray. And by the way, I don’t think Christians pray in ‘bums basements’. Please have some sense and respect before saying/writing anything.
February 10th, 2010 at 5:32 am
You have a good point, the best masjids are the simple ones. No fuss, no distraction.
February 10th, 2010 at 5:32 am
among the sign that kiamah is very near is that people build very big and beautiful mosque but the mosque is empty (not many people used them or mosque is only for prayers and less other activities)
February 10th, 2010 at 5:32 am
I totally agree with you. During my visit to Morocco I went to one of the mosque in Casablanca that many Muslims and tourists visit every day. It is absolutely beautiful and cost an exhorbitant amount of money to build. It boasts to be one of the biggest mosques in the world. The said thing is that a recent study showed that 56% of the Moroccan people were poor. I don’t understand spending that much money on a mosque when that many people are in need of assistance just to survive the day.
February 10th, 2010 at 5:32 am
I think it’s a great thing, if you can afford it and the money is halal i don’t see why not, because what’s "extravagant" for you maybe "normal" for some, so i think it’s a good thing.
February 10th, 2010 at 5:32 am
yeah i agree. there are beautiful yet simple mosques around the world, which offer a pefect place for prayer, and no distraction. if they want to spend so much money on islamic cause, then why not on something better eg charity etc, thts an islamic cause.
February 10th, 2010 at 5:32 am
Spending a lot of money on mosques is not a problem in itself.
Its how, when and why the money is used that makes a lot of difference.
For example, our religion has contributed its own art and art form to the world. There are things like Islamic art, Islamic calligraphy, and so on. If you’ve noticed, almost all of Islamic art presents itself in mosques and historical buildings.
The people who funded the forming of Islamic art in mosques spent a lot of money on these. You cant say that it is a waste to do this.
You can embellish and create beautiful buildings for the sake of God, and Islam because God is beautiful and loves beauty.
And some schools of thought teach that serving man is serving God.
However, we should do this with the following:
1. even if we aim to please humans, our main intention should be pleasing God.
2. we should not exceed our limits and we should aim for beauty in simplicity.
3. if we have a limited amount of money on our hands, this money should be used for the betterment of society in general, and distributed properly instead of spending it excessively on one thing.
So my answer to you is both, yes and no.
Depends on the circumstances.
February 10th, 2010 at 5:32 am
As far as I know anyone who helps build a mosque or donates money to build a mosque recieves a lot of Ajal from ALLAH(SWT). So there’s no reason why it would be haraam to spend money to build a mosque. As for luxeries; well the carpet is nice but there’s no reason for Plasma screen TVs in a mosque unless perhaps your teaching the Muslim children about praying or something to that effect and want them to watch some videos on the history of Islam.
February 10th, 2010 at 5:32 am
I think that a mosque should be built to be presentable and attractive because it is after all a house of God and it’s making an impression on muslims. However, depending on how much money the mosque has, a percentage of the money should go to charity. That makes sense, in my opinion.
February 10th, 2010 at 5:32 am
I can understand if there are issues of size and the need to make the masjid lager for more capacity, but what i dont understand is why they have the need to have unecessary things in there, i mean what the hell do you need a plasma screen for? i think it’s best to keep it simple, simplicity is beauty. I think the money could be spent in a better corse in other countries. i mean you have people in the 3rd wolrd that dont even have a masjid to pray in , or water to drink.