Fatwa ID: 01789
Answered by Mufti Mohammed Tosir Miah
Question:
Can a non-practicing person be appointed as a trustee of an Islamic school
Answer:
Your question will be looked at in two parts. Firstly, what kind of person should be a trustee or a responsible person for an Islamic School, Masjid or Madrassah and secondly should a person who may be pious and religiously upright but does not follow a Madhab be involved in School who do follow Madhabs.
Trustee is a legal term for the Islamic term of Mutawalli. A trustee is mainly used to take charge of the day to day running of the Mosque or any other voluntary organisation. The condition of a Mutawalli is that he is an adult, sane and Muslim. Furthermore, he should be trustworthy and capable of running the establishment. If a Mutawalli lacks any if these qualities or he is an open transgressor, then he should be removed from his post. (Raddul Muhtar p.578-579 v.6)
From the above we can conclude that the main condition required for a person to be considered a trustee is that he must be pious and God fearing. The following things need to be looked at a person to determine whether he is worthy of the aforementioned post or not:
- He is punctual in his five daily prayers.
- His dress, conduct and manner should be according to the Sunnah of the Prophet of Allah Sallallahu Alahi Wasalam.
- He should have a beard.
- His house should not be on an unlawful mortgage.
- The nature of his occupation and the wages must be from lawful sources.
Regarding your second issue, it will best, more in terms of the benefit of the day to running of the school and the unity of the staff that such a person is not appointed as a responsible person of the school.
Only Allah Knows Best
Mohammed Tosir Miah
Darul Ifta Birmingham
