It’s my understanding that many (most? all?) Muslims treat the Qur’an with a great deal of reverence and it’s considered blasphemy to damage or destroy a copy. I seem to remember reading in some countries it’s even punishable by death.
Does this apply at all to digital copies? i.e. is a computer with a copy stored on it treated more respectfully? Would a devout Muslim have a problem with just deleting the file? Would opening up the file and just typing random crap in there be offensive comparable to just scribbling in a paper copy?
What about removable media such as a CD/DVD or flash drive? Is there a proper method of disposal of a scratched CD with the Qur’an on it, comparable to the proper methods of disposing of a worn paper copy?
If digital copies are treated differently then paper copies is there any religious reason why?
For that matter, if I called up a copy on my monitor, then turned off the monitor, would that count as destroying it? If I load it into memory, then turn off the computer? It’s times like this I am glad I am an atheist.
And what do they do in printing plants, storage facilities etc., when they realise that they have 10,000 too many Korans for current demand? This must happen. I bet they quietly burn or recycle them.
I don’t know. I do know the Saudis like to display a Koran in their cars. Some hang a CD of it from their rearview mirrors where they make that funny blue reflection that looks just like a police light.
I looked on the web and it’s hard to find a difinitive way to dispose of the Qur’an in a hard copy.
I’ve read that burnig is the right way, but then others say that the Qur’an should be placed in a special cloth and buried, or tied to a rock and drowned.
I’m sure there was. I’ve looked it up in the past. Backspacing over digital information does not count as destroying it. The proscriptions to think like the expression of “God” only applies to printed works.
And, if you’re wondering, the reason G-d is used instead of God even online is not just habit–there’s the idea that you might print out what they wrote, and then throw it away, thus defacing the name of God, which is a sin that can be committed even unknowingly even by non-Jews.
I’m sure something like this has also been covered for Islam.
Destroying a Qur’an callously or with ill intent is, of course, different. While imams have opined that the electronic rendering of the Qur’an is not subject to the same rulings as print, it seems to me that, for the devout, even deleting a file or scratching a CD should be done with respect.
Which sounds like the difference between “flag burning” and “respectfully disposing of a flag by way of burning it”. On the surface the two acts are identical. The intent is what makes one illegal, and one prescribed.
BigT has it right. The general consensus among sages is that words on a screen or in a magnetic storage media (I’m sure the same applies to flash drives) lack a certain permanence and concreteness. They may be erased or destroyed without worry.
I have never however read a ruling on CD’s and DVD’s. As I understand it, information on these discs is represented by physical peaks and valleys. As the Ineffable Name and various equivalents are still considered sacred texts when translated into other languages. To me, this would include binary. So, I’m reasonably sure CD’s and DVD’s are considered sacred text.
