Ruling on bringing newspapers containing indecent pictures into the mosque
Fatwa No: 264397

Question

How is reading newspapers of all languages English ,urdu, arabic,hindi in mosque? Can newapapers be put under the books,Quran, Ahaadees books in the mosque?whereas some of them contains porn pictures.

Answer

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 is His slave and messenger.

It is not permissible to take the newspapers in which there are forbidden images or other prohibited things, like horoscopes and so forth, into the mosque. The Houses of Allaah (mosques) should be preserved and guarded against all prohibited things. Allaah says (what means): {[Such niches are] in mosques which Allaah has ordered to be raised and that His name be mentioned therein.}[Quran 24:36]; Ibn Katheer said in his interpretation of this verse: “meaning, Allaah has commanded that they be established and that they be raised above any filth, idle talk or words or deeds that are inappropriate.”

There is no doubt that taking such newspapers into the mosque is inappropriate; so the mosques should be purified from them. But if they are free from such prohibited things, it is permissible to take them into the mosque and read them, regardless of any language they are written in. However, there is no doubt that it is more appropriate and better to engage in acts of obedience for which the mosques are originally built.

For more information, please refer to Fatwa 87616 which clarifies that looking at newspapers which contain pornographic pictures is forbidden in general.

Allaah Knows best.

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