How to Dispose of CDs with Religious Content

Answered by Shaykh Abdul-Rahim Reasat

Question

I have recorded CDs with nasheeds and the Quran. What is the best etiquette for disposing of digital religious content on CDs? The CDs don’t physically have any religious text or pictures on them; they are just the digital content I’m referring to.

Answer

If there isn’t any religious text or imagery, you can dispose of them any way you like, as you will not be showing any disrespect. I recently disposed of such a CD in a shredder – one designed to shred CDs and paper.

The shredder is probably the best option if there is some religious text. The letters of the religious text need to be separated because the individual Arabic letters are not rein the Hanafi school. [Ibn ‘Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar] You can bury them in a pure place. Burning them is probably not a good idea because of the effect on the environment.

If you can remove the text in another way, then disposing of them in any other way is fine.

May Allah grant us good conduct in all matters.

[Shaykh] Abdul-Rahim Reasat

Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Abdul-Rahim Reasat began studying Arabic Grammar and Morphology whilst studying for a degree in English and History. After graduating, He traveled to Damascus and studied Arabic, Hanafi Fiqh, Usul al-Fiqh, Theology, and Logic with Shaykh Adnan Darwish, Shaykh ‘Abd al-Rahman Arjan al-Binsawi, Shaykh Husayn Darwish, Shaykh Muhammad Darwish, the late Shaykh Rashad Shams, and others. He then moved to Amman to continue his studies in those fields, as well as in Tafsir, Quranic Sciences, Hadith Methodology and Commentary, Prophetic Biography, Prophetic Perfections and Traits, Rhetoric, Arabic Literature, and Tajwid. His teachers include Shaykh Ali Hani, Dr. Hamza al-Bakri, Dr Salah Abu al-Hajj, Dr Mansur Abu Zina, Shaykh Ahmad Hasanat, Shaykh Ahmad Jammal, and others.