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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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In the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) ("No one touches the Book except one who is in a state of purity"), is the intention that a disbeliever does not touch the Qur'an?

Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
We move on to a message from M. A. A. in Sudan. He says: Majd, light on the path, peace be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
(peace and blessings be upon him) to Mu'adh ibn Jabal while he was goingصلى الله عليه وسلم لمعاذ بن جبل وهو ذاهب
to Yemen, "No one touches the Book except one who is in a state of purity,"إلى اليمن، لا يمس الكتاب إلا طاهر،
Did the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) intend that disbelievers do not touch the Qur'an? Because Allah, Mighty and Majestic, said:
O you who have believed, indeed the polytheists are unclean, so let them not approach al-Masjid al-Haram after this, their [final] year.يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِنَّمَا الْمُشْرِكُونَ نَجَسٌ فَلَا يَقْرَبُوا الْمَسْجِدَ الْحَرَامَ بَعْدَ عَامِهِمْ هَٰذَا
[At-Tawbah 9:28]
?

Answer:
The wording of the hadith is:
no-one should touch the Qur'an unless he was pureلا يمس القرآن إلا طاهر
Muwatta Malik 15:1
as it is in the hadith of
'Amr ibn Huzam.عمرو بن حزم.

in the book of 'Amr ibn Huzam that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) wrote for him, and among its contents was "No one touches the Qur'an except one who is in a state of purity,"في كتاب عمرو بن حزم الذي كتبه له رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم، وكان من جملته لا يمس القرآن إلا طاهر،
It is a well-known book that the community accepted with approval. The "one who is in a state of purity" here refers to the one who has performed wudu' (ablution) and is not in a state of major or minor ritual impurity; he is purified from both states. So, the "one who is in a state of purity" here means the Muslim who is purified from both states of impurity. As for the disbeliever, this is even more so; it is not permissible for him to be given access to the mushaf (written copy of the Qur'an); because he does not believe in Allah, Mighty and Majestic, and he does not believe in the Qur'an, so he is not given access to the Qur'an. And there is a prohibition against traveling with the mushaf to the land of the enemy so that they do not have the opportunity to insult the mushaf. What is mentioned in the Qur'an is that the disbeliever hears the Qur'an, as the Exalted said:
And if any one of the polytheists seeks your protection, then grant him protection so that he may hear the words of Allahوَإِنْ أَحَدٌ مِّنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ اسْتَجَارَكَ فَأَجِرْهُ حَتَّىٰ يَسْمَعَ كَلَامَ اللَّهِ
[At-Tawbah 9:6]
He is called to Islam and the Qur'an is recited to him; this is part of the call to Islam. But that he is given the mushaf or given access to the mushaf, this is not permissible until he submits and enters Islam and is purified from both the minor and major states of impurity, so that only the purified touch it. And likewise his saying (peace and blessings be upon him):
No one touches the Qur'an except one who is in a state of purityلا يمس القرآن إلا طاهرا
Sunan al-Bayhaqi 1:375
The issue is touching it directly without a barrier; this is what is not permissible except after purity.
Source قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، في حديث رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم (لا يمس الكتاب إلا طاهر) هل المقصود لا يمس القرآن كافر؟ — youtube.com

The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.

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