Buying and selling in the Masājid via telephone

Question:

What’s the ruling of buying and selling through the telephone while being inside a Masjid?

May Allah preserve you.

Answer:

It’s disliked to buy and sell inside the Masjid even if it was through the telephone, and this was the legal ruling of the ‘Allāmah Ibn ‘Utheymīn, may Allah have mercy upon him, as it comes in “Sharh Al-Bulūgh“.

For the Masājid are only established for the Tawhīd of Allah, singling out Allah alone, and His worship, through prayer and His remembrance, Exalted is He.

Allah, the Most High, said:

(فِى بُيُوتٍ أَذِنَ ٱللَّهُ أَن تُرْفَعَ وَيُذْكَرَ فِيهَا ٱسْمُهُۥ يُسَبِّحُ لَهُۥ فِيهَا بِٱلْغُدُوِّ وَٱلْءَاصَالِ ۝ رِجَالٌ لَّا تُلْهِيهِمْ تِجَٰرَةٌ وَلَا بَيْعٌ عَن ذِكْرِ ٱللَّهِ وَإِقَامِ ٱلصَّلَوٰةِ وَإِيتَآءِ ٱلزَّكَوٰة)

” In houses (Masājid), which Allah has ordered to be raised (to be cleaned, and to be honoured), in them His Name is glorified in the mornings and in the afternoons or the evenings,

Men whom neither trade nor sale diverts them from the Remembrance of Allah (with heart and tongue), nor from performing As-Salāt (Iqamat-as-Salāt), nor from giving the Zakāt.”
[An-Nūr:36-37]

And in Sahih Muslim on the authority of Buraydah, may Allaah be pleased with him, that the Prophet ﷺ said:

(إنما بنيت المساجد لما بنيت له)

“The Masājid are only for that which it’s built for.”

And avoiding this in the Masājid is from veneration of the symbols of Allah.

He, the Most High, said:

(ذَٰلِكَ وَمَن يُعَظِّمْ شَعَٰٓئِرَ ٱللَّهِ فَإِنَّهَا مِن تَقْوَى ٱلْقُلُوبِ)

“Thus it is. And whosoever honours the Symbols of Allah, then it is truly from the piety of the heart.”
[Al-Hajj:32]

And Ibn Batāl, alongside other than him, have relayed the consensus of the validity of the sale & purchase, if it took place in the Masjid, with this the scholars differ in relation to its prohibition or it being disliked.

And the Majority are upon it being disliked, and this is what is declared most correct by Shaykh-Ul-Islām.

And the apparent of the evidences is with the position of those that are upon it being prohibited, due to the hadeeth of ‘Amr bin Shu’ayb, from his father, from his grand-father: that the Prophet ﷺ forbade buying and selling in the Masjid.
Reported by the authors of the sunnan with a decent chain of narration.

As for its invalidity; the Majority of the people of knowledge are upon the lack of it being invalid.

And what is brought to attention is that using the hadīth of Abu Hurayrah:

(إذا رأيتم من يبيع أو يبتاع في المسجد فقولوا لا أربح الله تجارتك)

“If you see anyone selling or purchasing in the Masjid, then tell them, may Allah not bring about benefit through your commerce.”

As a reason for the lack of declaring the purchase/sale invalid; being that there is a approval of it in the hadīth, but that it’s supplicated against with the fruitlessness of their profit.

Is rejected because the hadīth is defectious; it’s been declared as such by Ad-Daaruqutni, due it being Mursal.

And Allah knows best.

Answered by:
Shaykh Abu Hatim Yusuf Al-‘Inaabi Al-Jazaa’iree – may Allah preserve him.

Source:
t.me/abouhatem/338

Answered on:
8th, Jumaada Al-Uwlaa, 1438H.

Translated by:
Abu ‘Abdirrahman ‘Abdullaah bin Ahmed Ash-Shingaani.