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What is the ruling on dealing with papers that contain the name of Allah, or the names of prophets, and are then thrown into waste, and what should be done about those who sell products bearing the flag of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which has "La ilaha illa Allah" written on it, and are then discarded?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

What is inscribed with what is greatly revered in Islamic law, such as "the names of Allah," must be respected, even if not in Arabic. It is not permissible to print it on bags or similar items that expose it to desecration.

Enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong is a collective obligation (fard kifaya); it is lifted from the rest if a sufficient number of people undertake it. It may become an individual obligation (fard ayn) in certain situations. The obligation to forbid evil is not waived merely by the assumption that advice will not be accepted; this is the well-known view among scholars.

Accordingly, advise shop owners to the best of your ability, unless it leads to extreme hardship. You can use modern technology such as email or mobile messages to send a concise piece of advice.

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

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