—then there is no harm in doing so; rather, it may even be recommended and encouraged, for the Prophet said: “Actions are only by intentions, and each person shall have only what he intended.” (1)

“They are to be prevented from establishing churches and synagogues, and from rebuilding whatever of them has collapsed, even if it was wrongfully destroyed, …”

His statement, “They are to be prevented from establishing churches and synagogues, and from rebuilding whatever of them has collapsed, even if it was wrongfully destroyed”: the pronoun in “they are to be prevented” refers to the protected non-Muslim subjects living in our lands. They are to be prevented from the following matters:

First: establishing churches. Churches are the plural of church, meaning their places of worship, whether they are Christians or Jews. They are therefore prevented from building churches, because this constitutes the establishment of rites of disbelief in Muslim lands.

Second: establishing synagogues. They are prevented from establishing them, for they are the places of worship of the Jews, just as they are prevented from establishing churches.

If someone were to say: “If they do not prevent us from establishing mosques in their lands, may we prevent them from establishing churches in our lands?”

The answer is: Yes. This is not a matter of reciprocity or equivalence, for churches are houses of disbelief and polytheism, whereas mosques are houses of faith and sincere devotion. When we build a mosque on Allah’s earth, we build it rightfully: the earth belongs to Allah, the mosques belong to Allah, and all the worship performed in them is sincere devotion to Allah and adherence to His Messenger—unlike churches and synagogues.

Part of the foolishness of some people is that they say: “Why do we not allow them to build