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What is the ruling on someone who sees a book or newspaper containing the name of Allah thrown on the ground and leaves it there? And is that considered an act of disbelief (kufr)? What is the ruling on throwing away paper on which the word "peace" (سلام) is written, even if the writer did not intend for it to be the name of Allah? Which names are forbidden to be disrespected, and does this include the names of months and days? Is placing a bag on religious books or ordinary books considered disrespect? And how should one advise those who do so?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Disbelief (kufr) is not incurred by what was mentioned unless it is mockery of the religion. Disbelief only occurs through the deliberate intention of the act of disbelief. Papers bearing the name of Allah must be placed in a suitable place or disposed of. It is not permissible to throw them into filth. Whoever finds such papers on the road should preserve them or dispose of them by burning, burying, or shredding. It is not necessary to search through papers to verify that they are free of Allah’s name to avoid embarrassment. The names of Allah and the Prophets must be respected. However, the mere names Muhammad, Isa (Jesus), or Musa (Moses) do not fall under this ruling. Placing ordinary books on top of religious books is not preferred, but from a Sharia perspective, there is no prohibition against placing language or history books on top of fiqh (jurisprudence) books.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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