Naming a mosque after the person who paid for its building

A question about naming a mosque after the person who paid for its building, in which Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyya answered that giving mosques the names of people is permissible in sharia for identification and distinction when the intention is good and there is no ostentation, with regard to the public interest, custom and the absence of harm, and on condition of referring to Egypt's Ministry of Endowments. ¹

The questioner asked about the ruling on naming a mosque after the person who paid for its building: a person has paid for a mosque to be built and wishes to name it after himself; is this permissible in sharia? ¹

Dar al-Ifta began with sharia's encouragement of building and maintaining mosques in al-Tawba 18, noting al-Razi's remark in Mafatih al-Ghayb (16/9) that maintaining mosques is of two kinds, frequenting them and the familiar maintenance of building, together with the agreed-upon hadith of Uthman that whoever builds a mosque for God has a like of it built for him in Paradise, and the hadith of Abu Hurayra in Ibn Majah on continuing charities, among them a mosque one built. ¹ It then ruled that names are given to things for identification and distinction, not for ostentation and boasting, citing al-Baqara 31 on Adam being taught the names, as explained by al-Tabari in Jami al-Bayan (1/456); al-Jassas in al-Fusul fi al-Usul (4/114) that a name is the mark by which things are distinguished; al-Samarqandi in Mizan al-Usul (1/700) that things are named to inform people; Abu Ya'la in al-Udda (2/475) that a name is given to distinguish the thing named from others; and al-Amidi in al-Ihkam (1/35) that the signification of names is not intrinsic. ¹

Dar al-Ifta said there is no objection in sharia to giving mosques the names of people, whether the builder or others, since attributing a mosque to them is an attribution of distinction, not of ownership; from the first generation mosques have been named after the events, places or tribes connected with them, and al-Bukhari gave a chapter the heading of whether one may say 'the mosque of such-and-such a clan', resting on the hadith of Abdullah ibn Umar about the Prophet ﷺ's horse race from the ridge to the mosque of Banu Zurayq; Ibn Battal in his commentary (2/71–72) says the hadith shows that mosques may be attributed to those who built them or pray in them without this being a commendation of them, and al-Nawawi in al-Majmu' (2/180) says there is no harm in saying 'the mosque of so-and-so' or 'of such-and-such a clan' by way of identification. ¹ It required observance of the sharia rules of good intention and purpose and the absence of ostentation, citing the agreed-upon hadith of Umar that deeds are judged by intentions, Ali al-Qari's explanation in Mirqat al-Mafatih (1/45), al-Shatibi in al-Muwafaqat (3/7) that purposes count in acts, and al-Ghazali's definition of ostentation in Ihya Ulum al-Din (3/297) as seeking standing in people's hearts through worship. ¹

As for the reservation of mosques to God in al-Jinn 18, Dar al-Ifta said the meaning is their dedication to the worship of God and sincerity of purpose towards Him, or that the whole earth is a mosque of God in which no one else is to be worshipped, or, as some say, that mosques are not to be attributed to other than God by way of ownership and exclusive right, not that naming them by way of identification is barred; Ibn al-Arabi in Ahkam al-Quran (4/321) says that although mosques belong to God by ownership and honour, they have been attributed to others by way of identification, and al-Jassas in Sharh Mukhtasar al-Tahawi (2/372–373) explains that attributing the ship to the poor men and the houses to the Prophet and to his wives is an attribution of use and residence, not ownership. ¹ It required regard for the public interest, the absence of harm and prevailing custom, custom being a source of legislation by al-Araf 199, as explained by al-Baydawi in Anwar al-Tanzil (3/46) and Ibn Ajiba in al-Bahr al-Madid (2/297), by the report of Ibn Mas'ud that what the Muslims regard as good is good with God, and by Ibn Abidin's verses on the standing of custom; it then made reference to Egypt's Ministry of Endowments obligatory, as the competent body delegated by the ruler, since a ruler's decision removes disagreement and the ruler may restrict the permissible, as al-Qarafi says in al-Furuq (2/103). ¹

Dar al-Ifta concluded that giving mosques the names of people, whether the builder or others, as in commemorating a scholar, ruler or reformer or merely to distinguish a mosque and make it easy to find, is permissible in sharia when the intention is good and there is no ostentation, with regard to the public interest, the absence of harm and prevailing custom, and on condition of referring to the body responsible for mosques, Egypt's Ministry of Endowments. ¹

Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyya published this fatwa on dar-alifta.org as no. 8992, dated 17 June 2026, in the category of endowment, among the fatwas of the Grand Mufti Nazir Muhammad Ayyad. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.