What is your opinion on wedding invitation cards, given that they are expensive and alternatives exist?
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The questioner : He says: May the Shaykh enlighten us on the matter of the cards used to invite people to weddings, where some of their prices reach five riyals
The Shaykh : how much
The student: up to five riyals for a card, and then it is thrown away. Is there a warning against this, especially given the existence of a useful, lasting alternative, or an alternative that involves no extravagance? I present to you, may Allah guide you, the following: writing the invitation on the back of a scholarly letter containing some violations of the Shari'ah or Islamic etiquette, so that Allah spreads good through it. Second: an Islamic cassette that Allah uses to guide and benefit, with the invitation written on its cover. Third: using photocopied papers written on a computer, which cost almost nothing. Is there a call to limit this extravagance?
The Shaykh : By Allah, I support the call to abandon this extravagance. I see that spending a lot of money merely for an invitation, where the invitee may or may not respond, and whose end, as the brother questioner said, is being thrown in the streets, is clear wastefulness that Allah has forbidden. He said:[Al-Isra 17:26-27]
As for his suggestion that the invitation be on a card with beneficial, directed, and well-known words on the back, that is good. I wish this were done, but let them be ordinary papers. The second suggestion is also good: that useful cassettes accompany the card. This has happened last year and the year before; we saw many invitations given to people that included cassettes, and this is good. We also encourage it as much as we can. If people did that, it would be an invitation to the wedding feast and an invitation to the Shari'ah, combining the two good things. Yes.
As for the third: that they be photocopied papers, that is also good; it does not cost much and is beneficial. Yes.
The Shaykh : how much
The student: up to five riyals for a card, and then it is thrown away. Is there a warning against this, especially given the existence of a useful, lasting alternative, or an alternative that involves no extravagance? I present to you, may Allah guide you, the following: writing the invitation on the back of a scholarly letter containing some violations of the Shari'ah or Islamic etiquette, so that Allah spreads good through it. Second: an Islamic cassette that Allah uses to guide and benefit, with the invitation written on its cover. Third: using photocopied papers written on a computer, which cost almost nothing. Is there a call to limit this extravagance?
The Shaykh : By Allah, I support the call to abandon this extravagance. I see that spending a lot of money merely for an invitation, where the invitee may or may not respond, and whose end, as the brother questioner said, is being thrown in the streets, is clear wastefulness that Allah has forbidden. He said:
and do not spend wastefully. (27) Indeed, the wasteful are brothers of the devils
وَلا تُبَذِّرْ تَبْذِيراً * إِنَّ الْمُبَذِّرِينَ كَانُوا إِخْوَانَ الشَّيَاطِينِAs for his suggestion that the invitation be on a card with beneficial, directed, and well-known words on the back, that is good. I wish this were done, but let them be ordinary papers. The second suggestion is also good: that useful cassettes accompany the card. This has happened last year and the year before; we saw many invitations given to people that included cassettes, and this is good. We also encourage it as much as we can. If people did that, it would be an invitation to the wedding feast and an invitation to the Shari'ah, combining the two good things. Yes.
As for the third: that they be photocopied papers, that is also good; it does not cost much and is beneficial. Yes.