Fatwa 09

Category: Fatwas concerning prayer – Mosques

Borrowing the holly Quran from the mosque

The Question :

A young man who doesn’t have the holy Quran at home and who is in great need for it and cannot afford to buy on, in this case, is it possible for him to borrow it from the mosque for a given period.

The answer:

Praise be to Allah the Lord of the worlds and peace and blessings be upon him who was sent as a mercy for the worlds, and upon his kins, friends and brothers up to the doomsday. This being so said:

To borrow the holy book is permitted for one who needs to read it and does not find but that one. Actually the fatwa among the hanabila is that to borrow it is a must since it is in conformity with the endowment aim, and because the need (for it) leads to its beneficial use and there is no harm to make it affordable as this does not cause any problem when we consider its availability. And to borrow it for a home use does not nullify its endowment state, and this is quite clear when we consider that the loan doesn’t have the meaning of a sale or a donation or an inheritance and does not justify any decision to make it (the loan) prohibited taking into account Ibn Omar’s hadith رضي الله عنهما concerning what the Prophet صلَّى الله عليه وسلَّم said : “Its bare ownership can neither be sold nor donated nor inherited”⁽¹⁾ as all the foregoing prohibitions are dealings which render the endowment state and its very purpose null.

Thus, the trustee of the mosque who is in charge of the loans has to deal with the borrower in a way and within the rules which prevent any interruption of the endowment advantages. So the borrower will have to return it (the holy book) after finishing with its use according to the saying of Allah the Great and Almighty:

﴿إِنَّ اللهَ يَأْمُرُكُمْ أَنْ تُؤَدُّوا الأَمَانَاتِ إِلَى أَهْلِهَا﴾ [النساء: 58].

﴾Indeed Allah commands you to render trusts to whom they are due﴿ [An Nissa: 58 ] and in the hadith: “Render the trust to those who entrusted you and do not betray those who betrayed you”⁽²⁾ and his saying صلَّى الله عليه وسلَّم, “What has been borrowed is to be returned”⁽³⁾ as it is known that the trustworthy lender has to get the holy book back when he wills as long as he does not cause any prejudice to the borrower.

And all science and knowledge belong to Allah, exalted be he, and our last invocation is to praise Allah, the Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings of Allah be upon our prophet Muhammad and his kins and friends and brothers up to the doomsday.