This, then, is unlawful; it is not allowed—even if you are almost certain the item was stolen inside the mosque. Do not say, “But how else am I supposed to recover it?” Rather, sit at the mosque’s doorway, outside, and say, “May Allah reward you; I have lost such-and-such.”

For that very reason the Prophet ﷺ said, “If you hear anyone announcing lost property in the mosque, say to him, ‘May Allah not return it to you.’” We invoke against him that Allah neither restores it to him nor lets him stumble upon it: “May Allah not return it to you,” because the mosques were not built for this.

Similarly, when the Prophet ﷺ heard a man calling out, “Who has seen such-and-such camel?” he said, “May you never find it, may you never find it,” meaning: may Allah not restore it to you. The Messenger thus prayed that the man would not locate his camel—why? Because the mosques were not constructed for that purpose.

Suppose, however, someone wants to announce an item on behalf of its owner; in other words, the object is not his, but something he discovered in the mosque—say, a set of keys—and he asks, “Who needs these keys?” Is this considered announcing lost property for himself, or announcing on behalf of its owner? It is the latter. Some scholars have permitted it, saying there is no harm in it, for it is an act of kindness. Others nonetheless regarded it as disliked, holding that even in this case it remains objectionable. If a person wishes to complete his good deed, let him sit at the mosque entrance and say, “Who has lost a key? Who has lost some money? Who has lost such-and-such?”

The essential point, my brothers, is that mosques must be respected. When the Commander of the Believers, ʿUmar ibn al-Khattāb, heard two men raising their voices in the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, he summoned them and asked, “Where are you from?” as though he