We have reviewed request no. 277 for the year 2004 which includes the following question:
A law was issued to ban building on farmable (arable) land. Some residents built a mosque on the land, and thereafter they built houses around it, to circumvent the law.

Is it prohibited to build the mosque in this way…or is it lawful?
 

This mosque built to circumvent public laws that forbid building on these lands, in order to build houses around the mosque or its foundation. Allah is free from this act, and from these kinds of mosques that were not built for His sake. It is a Masjid Dirar (mosques built for creating problems not for worship) and must be removed from this arable land, and it is impermissible to pray in them. Allah says in His holy book:
"You should rather pray in a mosque founded from its first day on consciousness of God: in this mosque there are men who desire to grow purity—God loves those who seek to purify themselves" (Quran 9:108).

God the Almighty knows best.