Fatwa no. 16028 All praise be to Allah Alone, and peace and blessings be upon the one after whom there shall be no prophet.The Permanent Committee for Scholarly Research and Ifta’ has reviewed the letter sent to His Eminence the Grand Mufty (Islamic scholar qualified to issue legal opinions) from the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Islamic Affairs responsible for Masjids (mosques). The letter no. 4932/7, dated 13/4/1414 A.H. was forwarded to the committee by the General Secretariat of the Council of Senior Scholars on 17/4/1414 with no. 1723. It states the following: (Part No. 16; Page No. 53) "Imam (the one who leads congregational Prayer) Jamal Al-Qar‘wy, of Masjid Shaykh ‘Abdul-Rahman Al-Dawsary in Al-Salam District of Riyadh, came to us with the attached request. The request indicated that in this neighborhood there was a need to teach women to memorize the Ever-Glorious Qur’an, which would require the construction of classes to serve this purpose on a part of the land belonging to the aforementioned Masjid, because of the availability of space there. Our specialist committee inspected the Masjid and there is an empty area of 27.20 x 18.50m to the south-east, where we would like to build the school. The attached sketch shows the area.According to what was previously mentioned, and the instructions from His Highness in the letter no. 4/442, dated 6/3/1406 A.H., which were based on your letter no. 1451, dated 17/7/1405 A.H. - that says that it is not permissible to take a part of the land belonging to the Masjid for any purpose until the matter has been referred to the judge of the district where the Masjid is located, or the Permanent Committee for Scholarly Research and Ifta’ examines the case and issues a decree or Fatwa as to what they see would serve the best interests of the Masjid - we hope that you will look at (Part No. 16; Page No. 54) this matter and tell us your opinion regarding it so we can implement it."