The ruling on copies of the Qur’an kept in a mosque

Question

A certain man is a hafiz. The copy of the Qur’an from which he memorized is now completely worn out and entirely unusable, and a Qur’an of that printing is not available at present either: it was searched for in Delhi, Deoband, Aligarh — everywhere — but without success. He cannot retain it from printings of another kind, because the printing in which he memorized the Qur’an stays in his mind. Now, by chance, a similar printing has been found in a mosque; it too is worn, but more or less serviceable.

Answer

If it is established that the Qur’an placed in the mosque is waqf, then it is neither correct to take it nor to remove juz’ from it to complete one’s own Qur’an. However, reading it while sitting right there in the mosque is correct: [ar]إذا تم ولزم لا يملك ولا يملك[/ar] “Once it is complete and binding, it is not owned and not transferred into ownership” (al-Durr al-Mukhtar).

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

Preview. The full text opens with JavaScript enabled.