Shredding or burning paper with sacred texts on it Fatwa No: 26385
- Fatwa Date:26-1-2011
Is it permissible to shred papers that carry the Name of Allaah? Should they be burnt?
All perfect praise be to Allaah, the Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His Slave and Messenger.
Papers that contain sacred texts, such as the Names of Allaah or the names of His prophets, must be kept in a proper place or burnt. When ‘Uthmaan finished the compilation of the Mus’haf (the written Quran), he ordered the originals to be burnt. [Al-Bukhari] Ibn Battaal used this Hadeeth as evidence for the permissibility of burning books that have the Name of Allaah written in them. It is considered a sort of veneration and protects them from being trodden on.
However, it is clear that shredding is similar to burning because the other wording of this Hadeeth, which Ibn Hajar described as being more frequently narrated, supports this. This is because the main aim of both shredding and burning is to prevent such paper from being misused.
Allaah Knows best.