1984-April-20

A.M. Journal

Muhammad Speaks

Imam W. Deen Muhammad

QUESTION: Is it un-Islamic to sell the Quran as a fund-raising effort?

WDM: No sir, it's not un-Islamic. Simply because producing and distributing the Quran involves cost. No one gets the Quran without cost to somebody. Somebody has to pay for the materials, the printing and the distribution, the circulation, and for an office to keep and house them and preserve them against damage, etc. So there is cost in materials, production, distribution and care.

There are a lot of costs involved, and some of the Islamic organizations in the international world depend on such religious materials for the fund-raising efforts for their charities. That's how they support their mission or their propagation work.

We have to understand that it's not a business man in the business of selling Bibles -- it's a religious community accepting a reasonable donation or increase in the cost to be given to the religious effort for religious purposes.

Now if an Imam opens up a business (store) and he says that his business is selling Qurans. we can't support that. But if he opens up a book store and he also sells Qurans, then we have to accept that.

So the only thing we would see as a problem is an unreasonable price being put on religious materials. But as long as the cost is moderate, we have to accept that because there are many cost factors involved in producing any kind of material, and that includes the Quran.

We need to support our religious efforts. The efforts of the religious community have to be supported, and that's one way of supporting it by purchasing Qurans and other religious materials. That enables our religious efforts to realize some funds with which to work.