The state has nearly 6000 masajid registered under the Waqf and there are innumerable shops and houses under those masajid. The masjid expenses are disbursed through the income gained through the rents. Several rulers and philanthropists have endowed their property in and around Hyderabad and Secunderabad by constructing masajid at the places. The motive behind endowment of properties and shops under the masajid was that the income gained through the rents could be spent to pay the salaries of Imams, mouzens and Khateebs and to meet the other expenses of the masajid.
However it is a common complaint regarding the shops and houses registered under the Masajid in the city and outskirts that the tenants are paying a meagre amount to the Masajid committees and are raking off money by letting out the shops and houses on higher rents. Surprisingly the officials of the Waqf Board are aware of the bitter fact. For example 150 houses are endowed under historical Makkah Masjid but a meager sum of Rs. 9000 is received from those houses.
Interestingly the tenants occupying the houses and shops that come under Masajid have made the societies. When the Islamic thinker Hazrat Maulana Mufti Khaleel Ahmed of Jamia Nizamia was asked regarding such elements he condemned the trend saying that the Masajid and Waqf properties are the ‘Amanat’ of Allah and it is the duty of Muslims to protect them. He added that ‘it is a common scene that the shops and houses under masajid are taken on meagre rent and are being let out to sub tenants on considerable rent; such use of shops and houses of Masajid is against Mansha-e-Waqf and Shariah. Maulana exhorted the Muslims to refrain from such non-shariah activities and keep themselves away from such unlawful income.
Abu Aimal