Selling posters and frames of Qur’aanic verses

Question

Praise be to Allah.

We appreciate your keenness to acquire knowledge and ask
about issues having to do with calling people to Allah, because calling
people without knowledge of Islam may do more harm than good.

With regard to selling these frames and posters, the ruling
on selling them will become clear once you understand the ruling on hanging
up these items.

Hanging up frames and cloths containing verses from the
Qur’an in homes, schools, clubs, stores and businesses involves a number of
things that are objectionable and contrary to Islamic teaching, including
the following:

1.
They are usually hung up for the purpose of adornment and
decorating walls with engravings of verses and adhkaar that are colourfully
adorned, and this is diverting the Qur’an from the purpose for which it was
revealed, which was to guide, offer beautiful exhortation, to be recited
regularly, and so on. The Qur’an was not revealed to adorn walls; rather it
was revealed to guide mankind and the jinn.

2.
Many people hang up these things for the purpose of
seeking blessing (barakah) from them, which is an innovation. The manner of
seeking blessing or barakah that is prescribed is by reading the Qur’an, not
by hanging it up or putting it on shelves and turning it into frames and 3-D
objects.

3.
That is contrary to the practice of the Prophet
(blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) and the Rightly-Guided Caliphs
(may Allah be pleased with them) who succeeded him. They did not do that,
and all good is in following them, not in introducing innovations. Rather
history bears witness in the lands of Andalusia, Turkey and elsewhere, that
adornment and making these plaques and decorations, and carving verses into
the walls of houses and mosques only occurs during periods of Muslim
weakness and decline.

4.
Hanging up these things is a means that leads to shirk,
because some people regard these frames and hangings as amulets that protect
the house and its occupants from evil and troubles. This is a shirki belief
that is haraam. The One Who actually gives protection is Allah, may He be
glorified and exalted, and one of the means of seeking His protection is to
recite Qur’an and adhkaar with humble focus and certain faith.

5.
Writing these things comes under the heading of using the
Qur’an as a means for business and earning more money. The Qur’an should be
protected from being subjected to such things. It is well-known that in some
cases, buying these frames comes under the heading of extravagance and
wasteful spending.

6.
Many of these frames are plated with gold, which makes it
more emphatically prohibited to use them or hang them up.

7.
In some cases, these frames clearly reflect tampering or
toying with the text, such as writing in very complex and elaborate styles
which do not benefit anyone, because they can hardly be read. Some of them
are written in the shape of a bird or a man who is prostrating, and other
kinds of images of animate beings, which it is prohibited to produce.

8.
It is exposing the verses and soorahs of the Qur’an to
mishandling and disrespectful treatment. For example, when moving from one
house to another, they are piled up with other kinds of furnishings, and
other things may be placed on top of them. Such things may also happen when
taking them down to paint the walls or clean the house. This is in addition
to the fact that they may be hung up in places where acts of disobedience to
Allah may be committed, and no attention is paid to the sanctity and
dignified status of the Qur’an.

9.
Some Muslims who fall short in a religious commitment may
hang them up to make them feel that they are undertaking some religious
matters, so as to reduce the guilt they feel, even though these things do
not avail them anything.

To sum up, we should close the door to evil and follow that
which was the practice of the leaders of guidance in the first generations,
whose people the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him)
testified are the best of the Muslims in their beliefs and all their
religious rulings.

Moreover, if someone were to say “we will never show
disrespect towards them, and we will never make them a mere adornment, and
we will never exaggerate concerning them; we only intend for them to remind
the people in their gatherings,” our response to that is that if we look at
real life, will we find that this really happens? Do the people who sit
there remember Allah or do they read the verses that are hanging there if
they happen to lift their heads and look at them?

Reality tells us that this does not happen; rather what
happens is the opposite. In how many rooms where verses are hanging up do
the people sitting there do the opposite of what is hanging above their
heads, and they tell lies, backbite, mock others, and do and say evil
things. Even if we assume that there are some people who may benefit from
it, they are very few and that does not affect the ruling on this matter.

The Muslims should turn to the Book of Allah, read it and act
upon what is in it. We ask Allah to make the Holy Qur’an the comfort and
light of our hearts and a means to console us in our grief and take away our
worries.

What I have said above is a summary of what is mentioned in
fatwas issued by the senior scholars of the current era, such as Shaykh Ibn
Baaz and the Standing Committee for Issuing Fatwas in the Kingdom (of Saudi
Arabia), and by Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen, as in the fatwa issued by the
Standing Committee under the leadership of Shaykh Ibn Baaz, fatwas no.
2078 and 17659.

Based on the above, you should not sell these frames, because
by doing so you may end up committing some infractions that have been
mentioned by the scholars, and you may be a cause of other people falling
into some such things.

We ask Allah to guide us and you.