Donating to a Mosque That Refuses the Call — Jurisprudential Answers — Miscellaneous Issues, Vol. 3

Ahmed al-Hasan Response:

A believer may not donate to these misguided people. The truth was presented to them and they rejected it. They are merchants of this world. In God's sight this is not a mosque but a shop for commerce and collecting people's money so that one of the agents of the religious authorities, and perhaps a group of minor impostors around him in Europe who do not work, can enjoy it, while sending part of it to their religious authority. Those who collect your money are given by the authority whom they follow a share of one third or one half of what they collect. This is why you find them fiercely attached to their filthy worldly gain, which they obtain by an extremely filthy method: deceiving and defrauding people in the name of religion. Whoever wants to verify this can go to Najaf and learn the matter for himself. Each of those authorities gives one half or one third of the money to the agents who collect it. You can verify this easily by going to Najaf and asking turbaned clerics who follow the religious authorities. If some of them dare to lie to you and deny it, there will inevitably be people in the hawza who tell the truth and are dissatisfied with the way the authorities and their agents handle money. Personally, when I raised the issue of financial justice in the hawza, a very large number of turbaned clerics supported me at the time. Many hawza students know about this financial corruption involving the authorities, their sons and their agents, but the students are unable to find a solution to the financial corruption—or, in reality, they placed themselves in a position of weakness when they followed these authorities. I personally experienced the following case. A short time ago, a person who collected money for some religious authorities in a country outside Iraq was led by God to announce to some believers that he had believed in and accepted the truth of the blessed Mahdist call. I ask God to grant him success and protect him. Through a group of believers in the call, he sent me a question about money in his possession belonging to some religious authorities. The amount was equivalent to several million dollars. He wanted to deliver the money to the Bayt al-Mal of the believers, and he also asked how much he and some of the people who had helped him collect that money were permitted to take, because taking a share is treated as normal among the religious authorities. May God grant him success: he did not ask to take one third or one half; he only asked whether it was permissible to take a share of the money before delivering it to the Bayt al-Mal of the believers. I told him to leave this matter, return the money to its owners, and inform them of the call. If they accept it, we accept their money; if they reject it, we have no need of their money. He should return it to them and let them dispose of their money as they wish. This is a recent example that occurred with me showing that these religious authorities have established a rule for their agents to take one third or one half of the religious funds, namely khums, until people came to regard it as a legitimate matter beyond question, whereas there is no evidence that a person who collects khums is entitled to take one third of the khums he collects. I raised the issue of religious authorities giving one third or one half of khums funds to the agents who collect them; indeed, the agents had become accustomed to setting aside their own share before delivering the money to the authority. At that time I directed some hawza students to go to their offices and ask for their legal evidence for giving one third of khums funds to the agent who collects them. They were unable to answer. Some cited the Quranic verse concerning zakat, not realizing that it specifically concerns zakat. Another said, ‘The later generation follows the earlier generation.’ The answers that reached me can, at the very least, be described as ignorance. In general, may God grant you success. If the believing person in the Netherlands, may God protect him, wants to donate, let him donate to the Mahdist Husayniyyas and mosques in Europe or elsewhere in the world that belong to the supporters of Imam al-Mahdi, or donate to help orphans, or donate toward establishing the supporters of Imam al-Mahdi's satellite channel. He may not donate in a way that strengthens these misguided people who insult one of God's proofs, whose obedience is obligatory upon people, day and night on satellite channels, and who flee from holding debates with the believers on their channels out of fear that their doctrinal emptiness and lack of evidence for their religious-authority system—which has deviated from the religion of Muhammad and the family of Muhammad—will be exposed. This is why you find them contenting themselves with insults, abuse, lies and fabrications against the call and its believers, and trying to deceive people with falsehoods. Q: Is it permissible to take, receive or spend sums of money—khums or the Imam's share—that we receive from the religious authorities as a monthly salary from the hawza? A: Those who are called religious authorities are not permitted to receive khums and have no evidence for what they do. But if they voluntarily give you some of this money because you are a student in the hawza, then take it from them. It is better for them that this money reach you; perhaps God will guide them to the truth and to leaving the falsehood they follow.