Fatwas Archive

Question: If time becomes tight and multiple obligations collide for a Muslim—such as an obligatory prayer, forbidding an evil, rushing a patient to the hospital, and the like—what should he do? What takes precedence and what is deferred?

Question: By what is the beginning of Maghrib known? And when does its preferred time end?

Question: If a man goes to the mosque before Ẓuhr, for example, and lies down there until the time of the adhān—intentionally—because if he lay down at home he might miss Ẓuhr: is that permissible?

Question: If the imām of the central mosque is not acceptable, is praying at home better, or in the mosque? And does this apply equally to the Two Sanctuaries and to other mosques?

Question: What is the ruling on smoking in the mosque?

Question: Between my house and my neighbor’s is an old mosque, of which only the foundation remains. People have no need of this mosque. My neighbor wants to enclose this mosque and take it for himself. Is it permissible for...

Question: There are artifacts in some shrines or mosques that the overseer—being unaware of their worth—has discarded outside among refuse. Is it permissible for a Muslim to take such an item for himself?

Question: There is a mosque with bathrooms underneath for relieving oneself, wuḍūʾ, and ghusl, and a person in janābah enters them. Must this be denounced or not? Is relieving oneself there and entrance by one in janābah permissible?

Question: A small mosque was expanded and rebuilt anew. Is it permissible to build bathhouses and the like for the mosque using its demolition rubble?

Question: Is it permissible to lock the mosque outside the times of prayer out of fear of theft?