Disposing of Pieces of Paper With Sacred Inscriptions...
Question
In my work place, a friend asked me about disposing of papers in which God's name is mentioned or some verses of Qur'an are written. My friend has many old and new Qur'anic and Islamic pieces of papers and he wants to dispose them but he doesn't know how to do that in a way, which would be respectful for their contents. I told him that when I have such papers I used to collect them in one place and burn them all. But another friend, when he heard this from me, he said that it is haraam (forbidden) to burn papers containing name of God. He suggested that I should throw these papers in the sea. The question is: Is it Haram to burn such papers? What is the best thing we can do with them?
Answer
The method of disposing of pieces of paper with any sacred inscriptions is not a part of the Shari`ah . Thus, the question of Haraam (prohibition) or Fardh (obligation) does not arise [1] . In view of the lack of any clear directive of the Shari`ah in this respect, one may opt to dispose of such pieces of paper in any manner, which he considers appropriate and possible [2] . The possible means of such disposal may include throwing them in a sea, lake or river or burning them to ashes or burying them in the ground. August 25, 2000 [1] Matters that have not been clearly placed in the category of either 'obligatory' or ' Haraam ' by the Shari`ah , may be considered allowable ( jaayiz ) or disliked ( makrooh ), but they can in no case be considered 'obligatory' or ' haraam '. Furthermore, it should remain very clear that to categorize something as either 'obligatory' or ' haraam ' requires a clear directive of the Shari`ah . Nothing can be termed as either 'obligatory' or ' haraam ', without a positive directive of the Qur'an or the Sunnah of the Prophet (pbuh). However, on the other hand, a matter can be considered 'allowable' ( jaayiz ), merely on the grounds that there is no clear directive of the Shari`ah , that either makes such a thing 'obligatory' or ' haraam '. Likewise, something may be considered as 'disliked' ( makrooh ) merely on the grounds of one's personal opinion or a derivation from a related directive of the Shari`ah . [2] We know that there are places where throwing such pieces of papers in a sea or a river may not even be possible. Answer published by Moiz Amjad
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