15/08/2026
Is Selling the Muṣḥaf Permissible?
The scholars differed over selling the muṣḥaf. The Ḥanafīs and Mālikīs permit it, the Shāfiʿīs consider the sale valid but disliked, while the Ḥanbalīs prohibit it and consider the sale invalid.
Ḥanafīs: Al-Shāfiʿī reported that Abū Ḥanīfah and his companions “do not see any harm in selling and purchasing” the muṣḥaf. (al-Majmūʿ, 9/302–303).
Mālikīs: Mālik ibn Anas said:
“There is no harm in selling and purchasing the muṣḥaf.” (al-Majmūʿ, 9/303)
Shāfiʿīs: Al-Nawawī states:
“Our companions unanimously agree on the validity of selling the muṣḥaf, purchasing it, leasing it, and copying it for payment.”
He then says:
“The correct position of the school is that selling it is disliked.” (al-Majmūʿ, 9/302–303)
Ḥanbalīs: Selling it is prohibited and the sale is invalid. Al-Shanqīṭī describes this as a distinctive position of the Ḥanbalī school, while the majority permit it.
Ibn Qudāmah cited al-Ḥasan, al-Ḥakam and ʿIkrimah as permitting the sale(al-Mughnī)
Thus, the transaction is understood to concern the physical materials rather than the Speech of Allah itself.
Ibn ʿUmar and the Early Scholars
Ibn ʿUmar strongly objected:
“I wish that hands would be cut off for selling copies of the Qur’an.”
He also called it:
“A wretched trade.”
ʿAbdullāh ibn Shaqīq reported:
“The Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to be strict regarding the sale of copies of the Qur’an.”
Ibn Masʿūd, Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī, ʿAlqamah, Ibn Sīrīn, al-Nakhaʿī, Shurayḥ, Masrūq and others also disliked it. Ibn ʿAbbās and Saʿīd ibn Jubayr said:
“Purchase it, but do not sell it.”
Yet al-Ḥasan, ʿIkrimah, al-Ḥakam, Isḥāq and Mālik permitted both buying and selling. (al-Majmūʿ, 9/303).
The Majority’s Response
The majority relied on the original permissibility of trade and understood the transaction as concerning the physical muṣḥaf—paper, ink, binding and writing—not the Speech of Allah itself.
They also interpreted Ibn ʿUmar’s severe statement as possibly addressing commercial exploitation: someone whose sole purpose is worldly profit rather than making the Qur’an available for Muslims to benefit from.
Ibn ʿUthaymīn explicitly preferred permissibility:
“The correct view is that it is permissible to sell the muṣḥaf and that the sale is valid, based on the original principle of permissibility. The practice of the Muslims has continued upon this until today.” (al-Sharḥ al-Mumtiʿ, 8/119)
He also suggested that Ibn ʿUmar’s prohibition may have related to a time when muṣḥafs were scarce, and sellers could exploit that scarcity.
Other Islamic Books
Books of ḥadīth, fiqh, Arabic, literature, permissible poetry, medicine, mathematics and other beneficial subjects may be sold; their sale was not treated like the disputed sale of the muṣḥaf. (al-Majmūʿ, 9/303–304).
Selling to Non-Muslims
The Mālikīs, the well-known Shāfiʿī position, and the Ḥanbalīs do not permit a non-Muslim to own a muṣḥaf, due to the concern that it may be subjected to disrespect. The Mālikīs consider the sale valid but compel the non-Muslim to remove it from his ownership; the Shāfiʿīs and Ḥanbalīs regard the sale as invalid.
