#632: Ruling on a Non-Muslim touching the Qurʿān
QUESTION
“Assalamu alaikum Admin. My question is “Can non Muslims touch the Quran?”
Because in the story I learnt about ‘Umar (RADIYALLAAHU ANHU) when he hadn’t accepted Islam, he was asked to wash himself before touching the Quran by his sister. How authentic is this narration?”
ANSWER
Wa Alaykum Salām Warahmatullāh Wabarakātuh.
Alhamdulillāh.
Know, may Allāh be merciful to us and to you, that it is not permissible for the Kāfir to hold or touch the Qur’ān.
This has been established by majority of the Ulamā from the different Madhāhib.
Imām An-Nawawī – rahimahullāh – said in Al-Majmū’:
“The Kāfir is not prevented from hearing the Qur’ān but he is forbidden from touching the Mus’haf”
Ar-Ramlī said in Nihāyatu Al-Muhtāj:
“A Kāfir is prevented from placing his hands on the Mus’haf even if it’s for the purpose of binding it. This is what was mentioned by Ibn ‘Abdissalam. Even if with that it is hoped that he becomes Muslim.”
Summarily, the Mālikis, the Shāfi’īs, and the Hanbalis hold that it is Harām to allow a Kāfir get hold of the Mus’haf.
Their reasons for this is the Hadith recorded in Sahih Al-Bukhārī that the Rasūl -salallāhu alayhi wasallam – forbade that the Mus’haf be taken to Jihād so as to prevent the Kuffar laying their hands on it.
And, the Hadith in which the Rasūl -salallāhu alayhi wasallam – said:
وأن لا يمس القرآن إلا طاهر
“And that the Qur’ān be not touched except by the one who is Pure”
Which was his writing to the People of Yemen as was recorded by Mālik in the Muwattā, Ibn Hibbān and Al-Bayhaqī.
Thus the Ulamā considered it wrong for the Muslim who is impure to touch the Mus’haf and on more greater respect, the Kāfir.
Abū Yūsuf, from the Hanafi School concurs with the positions of the aforementioned Schools, while his Colleague Muhammad bn Al-Hasan Ash-Shaybānī held that it were permissible for a Kāfir to hold it provided he observed the Ghusl.
He mentioned this premising it on the fact that the purpose of the forbiddance was impurity and that in Ghusl is the taking away of the impurity.
And what is sound of this difference is that the Kāfir must not be allowed to have the Qur’ān in his hands as much as possible whether he takes a bath (Ghusl) or not due to the generality of the presentation that has preceded.
And in the Story of the Islām of Umar bn Al-Khattāb is no proof for those that seek to use it as such for the following reasons:
1. This happened in the early days of Islām before the Hijrah, and before the command of the Rasūl -salallāhu alayhi wasallam – that the Qur’ān be not touched but by the one who is Pure, as was referred in the writing of the Rasūl -salallāhu alayhi wasallam – to the People of Yemen recorded by Imām Mālik.
2. This Story referred to a portion of a Surah of the Qur’ān, not the entirety of the Qur’ān.
And Allāh knows best.
Bārakallāhu Fīkum
Jazākumullāhu Khayran.
📚IslamNode
