# How should Muslims react when someone tears or burns the Quran?

*David Wood tearing the Quran: respect symbols, never be enraged*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/kwmtt2tqao0/s/22/
- Date: 2020-08-24 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Monday Nights with Mufti #179 | Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth (1:27:21–1:35:34)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWmtt2TQAO0&t=5241s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/kwmtt2tqao0/

**Topics:** Blasphemy, insult and free speech; Atheists and polemicists; Christians and other faiths

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Mufti Abu Layth says tearing the Quran harms nothing in Islam and Muslims should never be enraged by it, while he condemns it and urges everyone to respect religious symbols.

## Longer summary

Mufti Abu Layth shows a clip of David Wood tearing up a Quran and calls it disgusting and despicable, noting that he had said only the week before that Wood had been respectful to him. He says it does not offend or enrage him and does not harm an atom of Islam, since the Quran does not rely on print and is memorised by millions; Muslims should never become enraged, since anger is the most predictable emotion, but at most disappointed, because such acts kill dialogue. Clarifying his advice to respect religious symbols, he distinguishes satirising a belief, which he accepts since humour has no bounds, from desecrating a symbol, like mocking a country versus burning its flag. He expresses disappointment at Wood and at Apostate Prophet for laughing, and says he has heard that Abdullah Sameer did not know it would happen and did not approve.

## Sources and names cited

- David Wood
- Apostate Prophet [?] (YouTuber)
- Abdullah Sameer
- mushaf

## Transcript (machine tier, 1:27:21–1:35:34)

[1:27:20] right people but what i was going to speak about um is actually this so we've got here if i i'm trying to so i don't know if you've seen um seen the david woods i'll try and refresh it you feel

[1:27:51] yeah so you can see here this is what happened do you really do you really think that's the quran you really do you really think that you want to go this route now i will say that i i i found that utterly uh disgusting despicable

[1:28:26] um and it's a shame because i was just asked last week and i did comment about this on twitter i was asked last week about david woods and i said look i haven't really watched much of him but i've seen that he's been respectful to me and i respect him for that now within a couple of days i saw this clip and i was really honestly if anything i was just disappointed these things you know ripping the quran it doesn't look me as a person it doesn't hurt me like offend me like

[1:29:05] like as muslims i don't feel we should get kind of like enraged but we it's if anything it just disappoints it hurts from the angle that it disappoints you that you know because look you can you can tear the quran it's not going to destroy it's not going to harm a single here or a single it's not going to harm an atom of islam islam has stood the test of time it is here and it is here to stay now the quran does not

[1:29:45] it is not protected in the sense by it is not protected by just being printed it is not it does not reside or exist relying on print although obviously that's you know a huge part of how we access the quran the quran is memorized by people literally millions around the globe have memorized the quran it's not it's something that we hold obviously dear to us constitutionally yeah so whether people know the ins or outs of the quran is a different discussion whether they know the individual verses

[1:30:24] but the quran as al-kitab is held very dear now if somebody takes a mushaf and says ah i'm going to set it on fire tiger you know okay you're gonna do that like it doesn't harm me it doesn't harm the ummah it doesn't harm islam what we should not do what we should not do and anybody about to or reacting in that way this is my words to them first and foremost do not ever become enraged with these things okay anger is the most predictable of all human emotions

[1:31:03] okay do not allow yourself to become angry if anything disappointed okay that you because you see and why it was disappointing for me is because these things kill dialogue then because you realize that there's no respect left now you know that this is uh so based on that it kills like it ruins any bridges of dialogue and communication and in all honesty we wouldn't burn any book like uh you know i wouldn't just

[1:31:43] i could have a storybook i wouldn't just rip that and tear it up and do stuff like this it wouldn't you know what point is is that and then why would this is obviously a sacred book so and i do want to be fair look i said last week that i always advise people and this is how i've been taught as well that we respect religious symbols with respect and dignity now somebody did say to me yeah but you have satirized certain things and certain beliefs and certain peoples and i have but i'm speaking about symbols like actual like if somebody

[1:32:22] was to say this isn't but let's say this is the torah for example or this it happens to be a something of a hindu scripture book or something like the actual symbols that people have it's akin to the way in this day and age let's say we might take the mick out of a certain country you might say oh this country's weird it's like this or look at america he thinks he can do this hahaha or look at russia is like this or you might say oh look at pakistan oh my god it's

[1:33:00] like then he's taking the mick out of it now firstly i feel that humor has no pounds and a person can take the mick out of whatever they want i do accept that but you see that's saying one thing and then if i let's say i was to take the mick out of pakistan or to take the mick out of russia or america or china but then imagine somebody was to burn the flag these are two separate things they're not perceived the same it is seen as a very like obviously these are seen as symbols

[1:33:40] of actual things that the people like when you're taking the mick out of a country people will not like you for it and some people might and they'll understand you're trying to be funny or you're trying to do this or whatever but they will still see a huge difference if you between that and you taking a flag of that country and setting it on fire it takes it to a whole new level so i just want to clarify that look i i mean i absolutely

[1:34:16] absolutely advise first of all muslims and people generally that we have to always respect symbols okay it's just it's the way of the world okay this is how and and in turn our symbols are respected as well but it's just out of humanity and civility secondly my express my deep kind of disappointment at david woods for doing that um and really add apostate profit as well for laughing his head off i do believe i could be wrong but uh from what i've heard um abdullah sameer had no idea that that

[1:34:56] was gonna happen and he didn't actually approve of it although i don't i mean i just watched that clip i don't know whether he actually expresses it on that clip or but i heard allahu allah maybe i've heard wrong but i've heard that he didn't approve of that and he didn't know that was gonna happen um and in the clip i saw i haven't watched i don't know what happens after that but the clip i saw he doesn't kind of laugh at it or anything but uh apostate prophet is kind of laughing his head off that oh my god he's ripping the quran and i feel that this is exactly the problem okay

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment KWmtt2TQAO0/s/22. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/kwmtt2tqao0/s/22/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.