What is the ruling on attending activities organized by the mosque after every Eid, for which money is spent from "Bayt al-Mal" (the public treasury), when there are other matters more deserving of expenditure, such as assisting the poor and purchasing da'wah (Islamic propagation) books, and is it obligatory to accept the invitation to attend them?

Lenience in collecting and spending the funds of mosque coffers manifests in various forms. Among the forms of lenience in collecting them are: not securely sealing them, entrusting their management to a single individual, and placing a single coffer for collecting various types of funds with multiple expenditure categories, whereas the correct approach is to designate a specific coffer for each type of fund. Among the forms of lenience in spending them are: spending Zakat (definition) funds on categories other than their prescribed Shariah disbursements, spending from the coffer designated for mosque construction on purposes other than those it was allocated for, and being lenient in spending on projects that are not a priority or on matters that are bid'ah (innovations). The Permanent Committee has issued a fatwa (definition) stating that Zakat funds may not be placed in charity coffers in mosques because they do not fall under the eight categories of Zakat beneficiaries. As for participating in activities funded by the mosque coffer, there is no objection to it if the money spent on them is not from Zakat, or expiations, or mosque construction funds, but rather from the general charity and donations coffer.