take graves as places of worship, for I forbid you to do so.” It is also reported in the Sunan collections that he, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“May Allah curse women who visit graves and those who establish places of worship and lamps over them.”

Thus, anyone who builds a mosque over a grave and lights a lamp there—whether a lantern, a candle, or the like—has been cursed. How, then, can he spend any of their money on what the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, forbade, while withholding the amounts stipulated for them, despite their entitlement to them under Allah’s religion? Certainly, if this were a mosque devoted to Allah and free of any grave, both they and the mosque would be equally covered by the founder’s stipulations for them. But spending money on building the shrine is disobedience to Allah, whereas paying them is obligatory. If the mosque is separate from the grave, it has the same ruling as other Muslim mosques, but it has no special merit over them. And Allah knows best.

He—may Allah have mercy on him—was asked:

A man established an endowment for a school and stipulated in its deed that no one should reside at that school unless he held neither a salaried appointment nor a regular allowance, and that its revenue should not be paid to anyone receiving a regular allowance from another institution. He also stipulated a specified stipend for each student. Is this condition valid under these circumstances? If it is valid, but the endowment’s revenue decreases so that each student does not receive his prescribed stipend, is it permissible