اللى يلزم البيت يحرم ع الجامع
Elli yelzam el beit yehram ala el game'
Translation: Anything needed for the house is prohibited to (offer to) the mosque.
Meaning: Charity starts at home. First you should take care of your folks, then you can start donating things to others. Mosques accept donations, as most religious institutions do. But most major mosques don't depend on transient charity. Often, they have their own endowments from day one. For example, a family would build a mosque and a residential-commercial complex, with the latter intended to support the former. Since the Awqaf system went under state control in the mid twentieth century, the arrangement became murkier.
Source: ُEgyptian proverbs, (Al-Ahram Center For Translation and Publishing, 1986) by Ahmed Taymour Pasha,
Translated by: Nabil Shawkat
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