Can Zakat Be Used to Build, Maintain or Decorate a Mosque?

Most Islamic scholars and fatwa bodies say zakat cannot pay for building, maintaining or decorating a mosque, because a mosque is not one of the eight recipient categories in Surah At-Tawbah (9), Verse 60, and zakat must reach people. A minority reads “fi sabilillah” broadly enough to allow it in narrow cases, such as a town with no mosque.

The short answer from the fatwa bodies

The fatwa bodies of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, and India’s Darul Uloom Deoband, have each ruled that zakat may not be spent on building a mosque. Their reasoning is close to identical: the Quran lists who may receive zakat, and a building is not on the list.

Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta put it plainly in a fatwa posted on March 5, 2008: “Mosques are not among the eight channels of zakat, which are owed to people and not buildings.” The same Dar al-Ifta fatwa on building and restoring mosques told the questioner to build with sadaqah, or voluntary charity, instead, and to start with “the least space that can be used to establish prayers,” expanding as donations arrive.

Jordan’s General Iftaa Department reached the same result in Fatwa No. 2065, dated June 13, 2012, saying that “using Zakah funds to build a mosque or help complete its construction is impermissible” and that the goal “can be achieved through collecting donations and charities.” Saudi Arabia’s Standing Committee for Scholarly Research and Ifta, in a ruling reproduced as answer 12330 on IslamQA, said that “Mosques are not one of the eight categories mentioned in the aayah.”

The Halal Times does not issue rulings. What follows sets out who says what, and why the disagreement exists, so readers can take the question to a scholar they trust.

What Surah At-Tawbah (9), Verse 60 says

The whole debate turns on one verse. Surah At-Tawbah (9), Verse 60 names eight groups who may receive zakat: the poor, the needy, those who administer zakat, those whose hearts are being brought closer to Islam, captives and slaves seeking freedom, debtors, those “in the cause of Allah” (fi sabilillah) and the stranded traveler.

۞ إِنَّمَا ٱلصَّدَقَـٰتُ لِلْفُقَرَآءِ وَٱلْمَسَـٰكِينِ وَٱلْعَـٰمِلِينَ عَلَيْهَا وَٱلْمُؤَلَّفَةِ قُلُوبُهُمْ وَفِى ٱلرِّقَابِ وَٱلْغَـٰرِمِينَ وَفِى سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ وَٱبْنِ ٱلسَّبِيلِ ۖ فَرِيضَةً مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ حَكِيمٌ

“Zakāh expenditures are only for the poor and for the needy and for those employed for it and for bringing hearts together [for Islām] and for freeing captives [or slaves] and for those in debt and for the cause of Allāh and for the [stranded] traveler – an obligation [imposed] by Allāh. And Allāh is Knowing and Wise.”

Surah At-Tawbah (9), Verse 60 (Saheeh International translation)

Seven of the eight categories are plainly people. Only the seventh, fi sabilillah, is phrased as a purpose rather than a person, and that is where every argument for mosque funding begins. Classical jurists also leaned on how zakat was collected and paid in the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). When the Prophet (peace be upon him) sent Mu’adh ibn Jabal to Yemen, according to Ibn Abbas, he described zakat as wealth taken from one group of people and handed to another.

Hadith numbers follow the Sunnah.com numbering, so anyone can look up each hadith there; printed editions sometimes number them differently.

أَنَّ النَّبِيَّ صلى الله عليه وسلم بَعَثَ مُعَاذًا ـ رضى الله عنه ـ إِلَى الْيَمَنِ فَقَالَ ‏‏ ادْعُهُمْ إِلَى شَهَادَةِ أَنْ لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ اللَّهُ، وَأَنِّي رَسُولُ اللَّهِ، فَإِنْ هُمْ أَطَاعُوا لِذَلِكَ فَأَعْلِمْهُمْ أَنَّ اللَّهَ قَدِ افْتَرَضَ عَلَيْهِمْ خَمْسَ صَلَوَاتٍ فِي كُلِّ يَوْمٍ وَلَيْلَةٍ، فَإِنْ هُمْ أَطَاعُوا لِذَلِكَ فَأَعْلِمْهُمْ أَنَّ اللَّهَ افْتَرَضَ عَلَيْهِمْ صَدَقَةً فِي أَمْوَالِهِمْ، تُؤْخَذُ مِنْ أَغْنِيَائِهِمْ وَتُرَدُّ عَلَى فُقَرَائِهِمْ

“Narrated Ibn `Abbas: The Prophet (ﷺ) sent Mu`adh to Yemen and said, ‘Invite the people to testify that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and I am Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ), and if they obey you to do so, then teach them that Allah has enjoined on them five prayers in every day and night (in twenty-four hours), and if they obey you to do so, then teach them that Allah has made it obligatory for them to pay the Zakat from their property and it is to be taken from the wealthy among them and given to the poor.'”

Reference: Sahih al-Bukhari, Obligatory Charity Tax (Zakat) (Kitab az-Zakat), Hadith 1395 (in-book reference: Book 24, Hadith 1). sunnah.com/bukhari:1395

For many jurists, the phrase “given to the poor” settles the matter: zakat moves from a person who has surplus wealth to a person who needs it. A mosque has neither.

Why most schools say no

All four Sunni schools of jurisprudence, the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i and Hanbali madhhabs, classically read fi sabilillah as meaning volunteer fighters and their equipment (some Hanbali jurists add pilgrims), which leaves no room for construction. Saudi Arabia’s Council of Senior Scholars recorded this as the majority view when it voted on the question at its fifth session in Taif in 1974 (Resolution No. 24, dated 21 Sha’ban 1394 AH). The majority defined the category as “volunteer fighters and what they need to prepare,” and expressly declined the wider reading that would cover “building mosques and bridges,” teaching and sending out preachers.

The vote was not unanimous, and that detail matters for anyone who assumes the question is closed. Six members recorded dissents: Abd al-Majid Hasan, Abdullah Khayyat, Muhammad al-Harkan, Abdullah ibn Mani, Salih ibn Ghusun and Abd al-Aziz ibn Salih.

The Hanafi school adds a second objection. Hanafi jurists require tamlik, the transfer of ownership of zakat to an eligible person. A mosque cannot own anything in that sense, so a payment to a building fund fails the test even before anyone asks which category it belongs to. The fatwa department of Darul Uloom Deoband, the Hanafi seminary in India, applied this in Fatwa No. 624/646/B: “It is impermissible to use Zakah money for mosque expenses,” and mosques and madrasas “should be constructed and managed by donations (other than Zakah) even on small scale.” An Askimam answer approved by the late South African mufti Ebrahim Desai and published on Nov. 27, 2019, gave the reason in one line: buildings and causes cannot take ownership.

The trade-off of the majority view is practical. Small communities in Europe, North America and parts of Africa often have more zakat in hand than voluntary donations, and a strict reading can leave them praying in rented rooms while zakat flows overseas. Supporters of the majority view answer that this is the intended order of priorities: food and debt relief for poor families come before prayer halls.

The minority view: fi sabilillah as every good cause

A smaller group of classical and modern scholars reads fi sabilillah as covering all acts done for God, which would include a mosque. Hatem al-Haj, a member of the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America’s fatwa committee, groups the Hanafi jurist al-Kasani, the Egyptian reformer Muhammad Rashid Rida and the former Al-Azhar head Mahmud Shaltut under this broad reading in a July 20, 2021, survey published by MuslimMatters.

The broad camp is less permissive than its label suggests. Al-Kasani, in his Bada’i al-Sana’i, describes fi sabilillah as “all acts of piety” but ties it to a person who is in need, so the Hanafi transfer requirement survives. Shaltut, according to al-Haj, allowed zakat for a mosque only where the mosque could not otherwise be built.

Yusuf al-Qaradawi, whose 1969 Fiqh al-Zakah remains the standard modern reference, took a middle path. He rejected the “everything good” reading but extended fi sabilillah to intellectual and missionary work for Islam. Muzammil Siddiqi, a former president of the Islamic Society of North America, summarized Qaradawi’s position in a 2002 IslamOnline answer as permitting zakat for mosques “in non-Muslim countries,” while adding his own caution that zakat “is basically for the poor and needy and most of it should be used to take care of their needs.”

According to al-Haj, the Islamic Fiqh Council of the Muslim World League adopted the middle reading, covering da’wah and the defense of Islam, by majority at its eighth session, held in Mecca in 1985. Al-Haj himself does not extend it to construction. “Our mosques should be built using the purest of our wealth, not zakat money,” he wrote, with one exception: “indigenous communities or small towns where a mosque cannot otherwise be built.” He also allows zakat to clear a mosque’s debt.

Rulings at a glance

The table below lists rulings The Halal Times could trace to a named body or scholar and a published source. Dates are those of publication where the body gives one.

Maintenance, utilities and decoration

Maintenance and decoration get the same answer as construction from the bodies above, and decoration gets a firmer one. None of the fatwas reviewed for this article allows zakat for upkeep, electricity bills or ornament, because none of those costs passes to an eligible person. Darul Uloom Deoband’s wording, “mosque expenses,” covers running costs as well as building.

Decoration faces a second objection that has nothing to do with zakat. Even with voluntary money, the bodies above lean toward simple buildings; Dar al-Ifta’s advice was to start with the smallest prayer space that works. That makes zakat-funded decoration the hardest case to defend under any reading.

Salaries are a gray area worth separating out. An imam who is poor may receive zakat as a poor person, like anyone else. That is different from a mosque paying a salary out of a zakat fund, which most of the bodies above would treat as spending on the institution.

What zakat boards actually do with fi sabilillah money

State zakat agencies in Southeast Asia show that the fi sabilillah share is large, and that how it is spent depends on the local fatwa authority. Indonesia’s national zakat agency, BAZNAS, reported total collection of 44.7 trillion rupiah (about $2.7 billion) in zakat, infaq, sadaqah and related funds in 2025, according to its 2025 national zakat management report. Of the funds recorded on its books, 1.15 trillion rupiah went to the sabilillah category, about 11 percent of distribution by category. The report does not list mosques as a line item.

BAZNAS collected 40.53 trillion rupiah in 2024, Chairman Noor Achmad said on Aug. 26, 2025, and his successor, Sodik Mudjahid, said in March 2026 that the agency was aiming for 60 trillion rupiah in 2026. Growth on that scale raises the stakes of the fi sabilillah definition: each percentage point moved into or out of the category is worth hundreds of billions of rupiah.

Malaysia’s experience shows the cost of the broad reading when money is tight. Lembaga Zakat Selangor, the state’s zakat board, collected a record 1.22 billion ringgit (about $290 million) in 2024 and distributed 1.19 billion ringgit, according to its 2024 annual report. In September 2020, as collections fell during the Covid-19 pandemic, the board cut allowances it had been paying to mosques and suraus (smaller prayer halls). Hamizul Abdul Hamid, an official in the board’s da’wah secretariat, defended the cut in Utusan Malaysia on Sept. 18, 2020, calling mosque allowances a non-essential need that must give way when more families qualify as poor.

That 2020 episode is the strongest practical argument for the majority view. Money earmarked for buildings competes directly with money for households, and in a downturn the households lose unless the rules keep the two apart.

How mosques are actually financed

Mosques are built and run mainly with sadaqah, waqf endowments and community fundraising, and that is where the fatwa bodies direct donors. A waqf is an asset dedicated permanently to a charitable purpose, with its income spent on that purpose; our explainer on how a waqf works covers the legal structure. A shop or apartment block held as waqf can pay a mosque’s utility bills for decades without touching zakat.

Online crowdfunding has made the sadaqah route faster. LaunchGood, founded in 2013 by Chris Blauvelt, Amany Killawi and Omar Hamid, had raised about $650 million for Muslim causes by August 2024, The National reported. When the Eaton fire destroyed Masjid Al-Taqwa in Altadena, Calif., in January 2025, a LaunchGood campaign had raised more than $745,000 by Jan. 16, 2025, according to AboutIslam.

The weakness of crowdfunding is labeling. A single campaign page may accept zakat and sadaqah for a mosque project, and donors rarely see how the two pools are separated. Before giving, ask the mosque or platform whether it keeps a separate zakat fund, as Siddiqi recommended Islamic centers do in 2002.

In the United States, several platforms state their zakat policies in writing, and our comparison of zakat-eligible charities and giving platforms sets out how they differ.

The same due diligence applies to smaller payments. Our guide to paying zakat al-fitr online explains how to confirm that a charity is registered and reports how it spends donations.

Practical guidance for donors and mosque boards

Donors who want to support a mosque and pay zakat correctly can keep the two payments separate:

• Pay zakat to the poor, the needy or another of the eight categories, directly or through a registered collector.
• Give to the mosque’s building, maintenance or decoration fund from sadaqah or a waqf gift.
• If a mosque asks for zakat, ask what it will be spent on and whether it is held in a separate account.
• If you follow the minority view for a community with no mosque, record the scholar or council whose ruling you rely on.

Mosque boards face the reverse problem. A board that accepts zakat takes on a trust obligation to pass it to eligible people, which means separate bookkeeping and, in most jurisdictions, separate reporting to donors. Boards that cannot do this reliably should decline zakat altogether.

The obligation itself is fixed: zakat is 2.5 percent of qualifying wealth held for a lunar year, a structure that differs sharply from the Christian tithe, as our comparison of zakat and tithing explains. Where the money may go is the part scholars still argue about.

Readers who want the wider framework for how Islamic law sorts permitted from forbidden can start with what the Quran and hadith say about halal.

For a donor in a city with an established mosque, every body in the table above points the same way: pay zakat to people, and build the mosque with sadaqah.