On occasions, people may lose or forget items whilst they are at the mosque. This often includes leaving items of outer clothing such as jackets and gloves, or glasses, watches in our wudu area, phones or bags, keys, and in some cases, people may take the wrong shoes!
To retrieve a lost item at the mosque, there are a specific set of rules that needs to be followed, because as a general rule, it is not permitted to make announcements for lost items in the mosque. This can be understood from the fact that the mosque is intended to be a place of worship and spiritual gain and not one of material gain.
Abu Hurayrah narrated that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: If anyone hears a man crying out in the mosque about something he has lost, he should say: May Allah not restore it to you, for the mosques were not built for this. [Sahih Muslim Hadith 1153]
It was narrated from Sulaimân bin Burdah that his father said: “The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) performed prayer, then a man said: ‘Who was looking for the red camel?’ The Prophet said: ‘May you not find it! The mosques were built for that for which they were built.’” [Sunan ibn Mâjah Hadith 765]
It was narrated from ‘Amr bin Shu’aib from his father, from his grandfather that: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) forbade making lost-and-found announcements in the mosque. [Sunan ibn Mâjah Hadith 766]
Thus we do not recommend people asking for items within the mosque prayer area or making announcements therein. If anyone finds any lost property in the mosque, they are encouraged to hand it over to the imâms, mosque management or bring it to the Mosque office. Items that are found, or that are handed in are taken and stored in the Mosque office until they are ready to be collected.
We request that you contact us via email (info@islamiccentreedgware.org) or use the contact forms on this website, including any unique characteristics of your lost item rather than giving a generic description such as ‘set of keys’. This will ensure your enquiry has the greatest chance of success and we can get your item back to you as quickly as possible.
Please note we will keep lost property for a total of 14 days, after this time we will be donating to charity or disposing of the items.