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Is it permissible to read the Quran from a Mushaf embellished with gold and silver?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The jurists differed on the ruling concerning adorning the Mushaf (copy of the Qur'an) with gold and silver and writing it with them. The Hanafis and Malikis held it permissible to adorn them, but the Malikis restricted this to the outer cover and not to writing with gold. The Shafi'is, however, absolutely permitted adorning it with silver, and with gold for women and children, while forbidding it for men. The Hanbalis disliked adorning it absolutely.

Those who prohibited it cited narrations from some Companions that condemned adorning and embellishing Mushafs, such such as the hadith of Abu al-Darda: "If you adorn your Mushafs and embellish your mosques, then destruction will be upon you."

There is no harm in reciting the Qur'an from this adorned Mushaf or one written with gold or silver, because the disagreement pertains to the act of adorning and writing, and there is no benefit in removing the adornment after it has been done.

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

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