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Shredding or burning paper with sacred texts on it

Question

Is it permissible to shred papers that carry the Name of Allaah? Should they be burnt?

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, 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  may  Allaah  be  pleased  with  him finished the compilation of the Mus’haf (the written Quran), he ordered the originals to be burnt. [Al-Bukhari] Ibn Battaal  may  Allaah  have  mercy  upon  him 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 may  Allaah  have  mercy  upon  him 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.

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