Fatawa

Is it Allowed to Have Communal Iftar in the Masjid? – Shaikh Al-Albani

Questioner: Is it allowed to eat in the masjid and make a communal Iftar in the masjid?

Answer: “Yes, taking food in the masjid and making that a custom is not allowed because the Masaajid were not built for that as comes in the authentic Hadith. However, if a group arrives in the masjid who are poor and in need of food and drink and it is not possible to remove them for one reason or the other to a house due to the houses being tight because of it. Nor is it possible to go to the desert nor to an open land, then they should enter the masjid and eat due to this temporary affair. As for taking the masjid like a restaurant, even in some months like Ramadan and like how it is done in some Masaajid, then this is not from what the Salaf were upon firslty. Then it denies the principle in the statement of the Prophet (ﷺ):

فَإِنَّ الْمَسَاجِدَ لَمْ تُبْنَ لِهَذَا

For the mosques were not built for this [Muslim no. 568]

Questioner:  It occurs in Ramadan in Makkah and Medina

Shaikh: This is what we said, so leave it hidden O Ustaadh (Shaikh and audience start laughing)

Questioner: There is a usually a long and wide sufrah (cloth to eat on)”

[Silsilatul-Huda wan-Nur no. 1071]

Translator’s Note:

Based on the above fatwa, Shaikh al-Albani rahimahullah also mentioned that it is not allowed for the Jam’aatul-Tabligh to cook food in the masjid [See: Silsilatul-Huda wan-Nur no. 1071]

Translated by

Faisal Ibn Abdul Qaadir Ibn Hassan
Abu Sulaymaan

Print Friendly