[RayFairhurst]

A brother is wondering whether the following scenario is somehow justified by our Shari'ah and whether what this people do is lawful:

"Since many years in our mosque, especially in Ramadan, every kind of people come to raise money from the local community for the building of a mosque.

I don't see anything wrong in this, but I have a doubt about what the Moroccans call the "nus nus rule", i.e. the "50% rule": basically, whoever comes to the local mosque to raise money for solidarity or charity, is forced to leave half of what he collected to the mosque committee (who are part of the reformist "al-'Adl wa al-Ihsan" movement). This consolidated habit of asking for half the money collected has taken the shape of a real "tax" which is applied on everything and on any kind of charity/sadaqa, included the money collected for humanitarian help in country where there are emergency situations.

My question is: is the "nus nus rule" permissible?

On 23th the representative of a well-known humanitarian association will come to the local mosque in order to collect charity money for the very serious situation in Somalia, and if this "nus nus" habit is unlawful I would insha'Allah try my best to avoid that money intended for such a noble cause is "stolen" from it".

Anyone can help?

[FateHostera]

How could that possible be allowed? The people collecting the money are acting as wukala'. They are supposed to make sure that my money goes to whatever charity they where collecting money for. It's not their money and they are not allowed to give it away to someone else without my permission. You should confront them and if they don't stop you should tell everyone in the mosque about their dealings.

[RayFairhurst]

How could that possible be allowed? The people collecting the money are acting as wukala'. They are supposed to make sure that my money goes to whatever charity they where collecting money for. It's not their money and they are not allowed to give it away to someone else without my permission. You should confront them and if they don't stop you should tell everyone in the mosque about their dealings.

Sidi Abbe

Actually is the mosque committe forcing the brothers who come to collect money, to give them the 50% of what they collected in "their mosque".
The brothers who came to collect money have thus to choose between not getting anything or be content with only the half of what people had freely chose to donated them...

I guess then that the brother should stand up and for example inform all the people that their own "committe" hold back the 50% of what other brothers came to collect for humanitarian projects..

[unatkot]

I assume that they are informed previously, and that the other 50% is not for the commitee members as individuals, but for the mosque to support other humanitarian causes, taking the 50% since the mosque was used and the support came from its members, perhaps even a form of encouragement to local members to donate?

If this is the case, im not sure what the ruling is. I dont know. I can however see how some would not like it.

[FateHostera]

I assume that they are informed previously, and that the other 50% is not for the commitee members as individuals, but for the mosque to support other humanitarian causes, taking the 50% since the mosque was used and the support came from its members, perhaps even a form of encouragement to local members to donate?

If this is the case, im not sure what the ruling is. I dont know. I can however see how some would not like it.

If they are informed previously then it woudn't be a problem, but that's not what I understood from the question.

I know some organisations use some of the collected money to cover their administration costs, but I don't think that it can be compared to what we are discussing here. Here we have a third part (the mosque committee) taking money in order to cover their own expenses, not to cover the expenses that are related to the distribution of sadaqa or zakat. And Allahu A'lam.

[RayFairhurst]

I assume that they are informed previously, and that the other 50% is not for the commitee members as individuals, but for the mosque to support other humanitarian causes, taking the 50% since the mosque was used and the support came from its members, perhaps even a form of encouragement to local members to donate?

No, it's not for any other humanitarian cause, but just to pay their own expenses (and maybe to finance their own movement, wa Allahu a'lam) taking the money off real humanitarian projects without (I suppose) the attending brothers knowing.
Insha'Allah the brother will inform them..

Yes, that would probably be a good idea. They have the right to know how their money is used.

Sidi.