Fatwa n° 825

Category: Miscellaneous Fatwas – Knowledge and Scholars

The ruling concerning distributing products
related to [religious] knowledge
and Da‘wa with forbidden money

Question:

Is it permissible to buy tapes of religious knowledge, books and booklets of Da‘wa (preaching) with forbidden money -whose owners wish to get rid of it- for the purpose of distributing them for preaching aims? May Allah reward you.

 

Answer:

All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds. Peace and blessing be upon whom Allah sent as a mercy to the Worlds, upon his Family, his Companions and his Brothers until the Day of Resurrection:

It is incumbent upon the Muslim if he wants to get rid of the forbidden money and if he is desperate of finding its owner, it is incumbent upon him to spend it on the Muslims’ interests, or on the poor and needy people according to what he judges suitable. Further, he has to estimate the most deserving as much as he can. So, if he sees it suitable to spend it on Muslims’ interests or on an organism of charity which works to realize a general charitable project which is not restricted to a given person or a specific group of people; it is permissible for him to do that, such as erecting a hospital or an orphanage, or spend it on building ablution houses and water closets of a mosque if they are separated from it and suchlike among things that achieve a general interest. However, if he sees that the most appropriate is to spend it on the poor and needy people in order to give out what he possesses of the forbidden money, he is allowed to give it to them so that they satisfy their needs.

Besides, distributing the forbidden money under the form of tapes and booklets of Da‘wa (preaching) is not a valid way of spending the forbidden money for two reasons:

First: It will not be a benefit for Muslims in general, but it will be restricted to a limited number of individuals.

Second: tapes that contain [audio] Qur’an, admonishment and religious knowledge and booklets of Da‘wa are like the edification of mosques which must not be with the forbidden money inasmuch as: “Allah is Good and accepts only that which is good(1). We cannot compare it with the fact of giving the forbidden money to the poor, because Allah عزّ وجلّ allowed him (the poor) to take this money so as it does not remain without an owner. However, He عزّ وجلّ did not allow taking advantage of the forbidden money in the erection of the mosques and their maintenance, either be it a constructing maintenance or maintenance of belief, according to the most valid of the scholars’ opinions.

The perfect knowledge belongs to Allah عزَّ وجلَّ; and our last prayer is all the praises and thanks are to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, and prayers of Allah are to Muhammad and his Family, Companions and Brothers until the Day of Resurrection.

 

Algiers, Safar the 13th, 1427 H.

Corresponding to: March the 13th, 2006 G.

 


(1) Narrated by Muslim (1015) from the hadith of Abû Hurayra  رضي الله عنه.

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