“Only he shall maintain the mosques of Allah who believes in...
“Only he shall maintain the mosques of Allah who believes in Allah and the Last Day, and performs the prayer, and pays the alms (zakāt), and fears none but Allah. They, hopefully, will be among the guided.”*** Mosques are the important centers of Muslims’ worship and social activities. Therefore, both their custodians should be pure and pious and their programs must be constructive and educative. Also, their budget should be lawful, and those who haunt there must be godly and pious.
Otherwise, when the producers of mosques are some tyrants and aggressive rulers, and their prayer-leaders are some illiterate coward persons, mosques will naturally remain far off from their main aim which is to be spiritually populated, not constructionally.
As the late Feyz-i-Kāshāni has pointed out in his commentary book entitled: At-Tafsir-us-Sāfi, maintaining a mosque includes: mending, cleanliness, pavement, light, teaching, and preaching.[^1] The Messenger of Allah (S) has said: “When you see a man haunts a mosque, then testify to his Faith.” Explanations Maintaining a mosque and its custodianship needs some conditions: From the point of belief, Faith in Origin and End is necessary.
From the point of practice, establishing prayers and paying alms are obligatory. From the point of spirit, bravity and impenetrability are demanded. If the custodians of mosques be brave enough, the mosques will be the center of helpful activities against transgression. The duty of the custodians of godly mosques and the maintainers of them is helping the deprive. Therefore, they should be the givers of alms.
The verse says: “…and performs the prayer, and pays the alms (zakāt), and fears none but Allah…” [^2] Faith is not aloof from practice; prayer is not separate from alms; and a mosque is not empty from revolution and struggle against injustice. The verse says: “Only he shall maintain the mosques of Allah who believes in Allah and the last Day, and performs the prayer, and pays the alms (zakāt) and fears none but Allah.