Question 16
Can one hold Qur'an tapes without ablution?
Answer
Yes, it is permitted to touch Qur'an tapes and media without being in a state of ritual purity. This is because the prohibition of carrying or touching the Qur'an relates only to that which is customarily considered to be the written text of the Qur'an.
As for that which is on tapes and the like—such as computer CDS—it is not customarily considered to be the written text of the Qur'an. [Thus, it would be permitted to touch.] It is actually a kin to that which someone has memorized of the Qur'an: it is permitted, by consensus, for the person without ablution to carry someone who has memorized the Qur'an. It is possible to deduce the permissibility of the issue at hand by analogy (qiyas) through this. And Allah alone gives success.
I asked my teacher, the scholar of verification Sheikh Muhammad al-Khatib, and he concurred regarding the permissibility of this issue, and mentioned the same analogy (sunni path)
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