Is it permissible to tear up books found in mosques if they contain misguidance and shirk (associating partners with Allah)?

The questioner : There are some books in them, meaning, it is almost open disbelief, as if one were to say, for example, *Nuzhat al-Majalis* (The Delight of the Gatherings). Is it permissible to take out such a book, and *al-Tabaqat al-Kubra* (The Great Layers), and tear it up, or leave it in the mosque? I asked before, but I did not understand the answer; there was interference on the phone.

The Shaykh : If *al-Tabaqat al-Kubra* by al-Sha'rani and *Nuzhat al-Majalis* are in the mosque, it is not only permissible but obligatory to tear them up, unless we assume a man who is a scholar and poor, extremely poor, unable to buy such a copy from the market at the price. In that case, instead of tearing it up, you present it to him, because he is able to distinguish falsehood from truth in what is in it.

The questioner : I mean, there are many poor students of knowledge.

The Shaykh : No, no, I do not want him to be a scholar.

The questioner : Among the scholars who cannot afford to buy such a book, leaving it in the mosque is not preferable.

The Shaykh : No, leaving it in the mosque may allow it to reach the hands of those who do not distinguish.

The questioner: May Allah bless you.

The Shaykh : Yes.