Discussion regarding the decoration of Qur'ans and mosques and the hanging of verses.

The Shaykh : Praise is to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness, and we seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our souls and the badness of our deeds. Whom Allah guides, none can mislead, and whom He leaves to mislead, none can guide. And I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger. I believe that this invitation to this pleasant evening, if Allah wills, was not for showing off, seeking fame, or appearing before people, but out of love for Allah, if Allah wills. Accordingly, one of the first conditions of love for Allah is advising one another in the religion of Allah. And among the most important matters that should be reminded and advised about is what has become widespread among people and has become an inseparable part of their lives, especially for those who are not restricted in their provision. I say, it is not necessary to say "especially if he is given ample provision." Therefore, I remind you, for the reminder benefits the believers, on the occasion of this pleasant meeting, if Allah wills, that the Muslim's home should reflect in reality what represents the Muslim's Islamic personality in his reality. Just as he does not imitate the disbelievers in his appearance, so he should not imitate them in his home, which is most like his clothing to him and his family. This home should also represent the idea of the one who dwells in it, in terms of avoiding imitating the disbelievers. And not only that, but also avoiding imitating two other groups: the extravagant and the innovators.
As for imitating the extravagant, it is undoubtedly, in terms of expanding the use of adornment, a matter I do not wish to dwell on for long, specifically the point of imitating the extravagant, let alone the disbelievers, because I do not see anything significant in this land, praise be to Allah, that requires reminding people about the disbelievers, or even about the extravagant, because, praise be to Allah, I do not see here any significant signs of extravagance and luxury. Therefore, what I intended was to speak about imitating the innovators, which is a very broad circle in which one may fall, even if he is on our line and our methodology in terms of our starting point, which is what our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and our righteous predecessors (may Allah be pleased with them all) were upon, namely that we should embody the saying of one of those famous predecessors known for knowledge, righteousness, and precedence in Islam, namely 'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him), who said, "Follow and do not innovate, for you have been sufficed. Hold fast to the ancient matter." With this characteristic, which is the obligation of following the predecessors and ceasing from the innovations of the later generations, I thought it best to remind you of some manifestations from which hardly any Muslim home is safe, even if its owner is one of extreme poverty, namely decorating the walls with some of the noble verses. The decoration may be with a simple sign in a very basic script, let alone if the decoration is in beautiful calligraphy with an ornate frame of every color. In that case, we say that without a doubt, if the Muslim has some Salafi culture, he knows for certain that this was not the way of the predecessors. And it has been said, and rightly so, "All good is in following the predecessors, and all evil is in the innovation of the later generations." The Noble Qur'an, as you all know, was revealed, as the Noble Qur'an explicitly states, The Qur'an did not descend from our Lord (Glorified and Exalted is He), who is established above the Throne, to decorate walls or to ornament mushafs, but rather it was revealed to act upon its rulings, conduct, and the like. We should know that among the schemes of Shaytan against mankind is that he beautifies for them a matter that is not prescribed, and he does so only to divert them thereby from what is prescribed. So many people are satisfied with hanging the mushaf in the front of the place, for example, but he does not read the mushaf, neither at night nor by day, and perhaps he does not even pray to Allah. Shaytan convinced him that it is sufficient for him to place the symbol of the Muslims, which is the Noble Qur'an, a mushaf placed in a case or a bag, which may be made of cloth or an expensive garment. This is his exaltation of the Noble Qur'an! As for embodying the meaning of the saying of Allah the Exalted, this is Shaytan, the manifest enemy of man, diverting him from that to such manifestations that you see in some homes and some houses. Therefore, decorating the walls by hanging noble verses, especially if they are in gilded and beautiful calligraphy, is what the Muslim should avoid, because it involves two matters that I mentioned earlier. I will now summarize the two matters and say: the first is that it was not the practice of the predecessors, and the second is that it is the deception and delusion of Shaytan upon man, making him think that this is from the Shari'ah because it involves respect and exaltation, and that is not the case. On this occasion, I am pleased to mention another innovation and a report from that noble Companion mentioned earlier, namely Ibn Mas'ud, that he was asked about the ornamentation of the mushaf, and he said, to the effect that the ornamentation of the mushaf is not from the prescribed work, but rather what is prescribed is to act upon what is in it, not to ornament and decorate it. This also leads us, and I hope to conclude this word or this sermon with another innovation that has spread and encompassed the mosques of the Muslims, even the three mosques about which our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, and he said, and he mentioned these three mosques. These three mosques are the best of the mosques of the world, yet they have not been saved from the affliction of mosque ornamentation, this ornamentation about which hadiths have come warning the Muslims against it, and yet that did not benefit those in charge of building mosques, even at the expense of donors and benefactors. These people who are in charge of building mosques fall into two violations. The first violation is what we are currently discussing, which is violating the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) in some hadiths that prohibit the ornamentation of mosques, including his saying (peace and blessings be upon him), meaning by plastering them, whitewashing them, and caring for their ornamentation, as indicated by the narrator of the hadith, 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas, who commented on the hadith by saying, "You will ornament them just as the Jews and Christians ornamented them." And this statement spoken by 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas seems as if it came from the fountainhead of prophethood, because it matches the reality of the Muslims today: "You will ornament them just as the Jews and Christians ornamented them." So today, we can hardly distinguish between a mosque and a church in that each resembles the other in the exaggeration of ornamenting these places. The saying of Ibn 'Abbas, "You will ornament them," may be a mawquf report considered as marfu', or it may be an ijtihad in which he took it from some general hadiths, such as, for example, the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), This hadith is general and comprehensive, so Ibn 'Abbas may have taken this word from a specific word of the Messenger or from the generality of this hadith, the hadith of Also, among the hadiths in which the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) prohibited and warned against falling into such ornaments is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him), This is a real and very regrettable fact in that it contradicts the teachings of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). I say this is the first harm that those in charge of collecting donations from people fall into. The other problem is that the one who builds a mosque at his own expense and from his own pocket has violated the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) in these hadiths, whereas those who collect the money are held accountable from another angle, that they placed it in something for which it was not prescribed. Therefore, I warn anyone who participates in collecting money to build a mosque that contains some of these ornaments, including the tall minaret that almost touches the clouds with its height, and there is absolutely no need for it in this time, because previously they claimed that it was from the unlegislated public benefits and that its purpose was for the mu'adhdhin to climb to the top of the minaret to carry his voice to the farthest possible call to prayer. Now, the loudspeaker, as you know, carries the voice to the farthest possible distance, so that the minaret, however tall it is, will not achieve one-tenth of this means that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) created in this time. So spending thousands of dinars, not only for the ornamentation of the mosque from the inside, but also for lengthening the minaret from the outside, all of this is a waste of money, in addition to violating the aforementioned hadiths concerning the ornamentation of mosques. This is a word I wished to remind you of, and the reminder benefits the believers. Now I leave the opportunity to anyone who has a question about this word or otherwise.