21. ALLAH IS GOOD AND ACCEPTS ONLY THE GOOD
I noticed that the ruling given by some scholars regarding the lawful and unlawful earning of wealth by rulers, who then spend some of their money to build schools and places of worship (for Sufis), gives some comfort to the heart of the charity giver of this kind, and they would mention to them that spending the money not belonging to them is a rewarding deed since he does not know to whom this unlawful money [he acquired] belongs to so that he could give it back to them!
I said: ‘I wonder at such people who step forward to give verdicts when they do not know the principles of religion (usul al-shariah)!
The condition of one giving charity should be investigated first; for the ruler, the avenues through which public money should be spent are known, so he can neither prevent those entitled to receiving their right, nor utilise the money in what brings no benefit such as Sufi schools and houses.
If the charity- giver is a governor or a deputy ruler then he should return to the treasury (i.e. bayt al-mal) what must be returned since he is only entitled to receive from it what is assigned for him.
Thus, if he spends from other than the money he is entitled to, he will be using wealth that does not belong to him, and if he permits the use of such money, his permission will be invalid. If he feudalism what is not necessary to perform his duties it will be unlawful to take or give since it is the right belonging to the general public (Muslims) that he has no authority over— and similarly the one who feudalised this money or property will be sinful to accept.
If the money is unlawful or forcefully acquired then whatever is done with it will be prohibited. It must be returned to the lawful owners or their heirs in case of the death of the owner.
If the lawful owner or heirs can not be found then the money should be deposited in the Muslim treasury {bayt al mal) to spend either on matters benefiting the public or in charity, because whatever the cause he will spend this unlawful money on, he will be sinful.
It was reported that Al-Qasim Ibn Mukhaymrah related that the Prophet said, “Whoever earns wealth from unlawful sources then uses this money to join a kinship or for charity or spending it in the path of Allah, all that will be gathered and thrown in the hellfire.”
However, if a person is a trader who earned his money from lawful sources and spends his money to build a Masjid or dedicated an endowment for jurists, he will be rewarded for such deeds. But a person earning his wealth from lawful sources would do this when he has extra wealth after he pays the 3akah as he then should be pleased to build and spend since such deeds cannot be from the zakah money as sincerity (salama al-niyya) and sound intention (khulus al-maqsad) are required!
Besides, building schools nowadays is a risk since most of those seeking knowledge in the field of jurisprudence focus on learning philosophy (to debate and discuss controversial issues) and are no longer interested in learning sciences of religion, and rarely attend the Masjid as they suffice with schools and titles.
Building gathering houses is not even something of value because the majority of ascetics are lazy and ignorant who claim to be loved by Allah and close to Him. They dislike learning religious knowledge and do not follow the steps of Sari and Al Junavd— they only perform the obligatory acts and are content with wearing [worn out] clothes with patches on them. It is unreasonable to assist them in being lazy, idle and laid back and there’s nothing rewarding in doing such an act.
(Source: al-Hafiz Abu’l-Faraj ibn al-jawzl [d. 597AH] “CAPTURED THOUGHTS being” a translation of his masterpiece ‘Sayd al-K hatir)
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