Selling books that contain factual errors and religious violations

A question on selling books said to contain religious violations, which Egypt's Dar al-Ifta answered according to the purpose of the sale and the buyer. ¹

The questioner said a friend had given him books to sell on his behalf, and other friends told him they contained religious violations; he asked whether he may sell them. ¹

Dar al-Ifta answered that selling scholarly books is permitted when the seller owns them and they contain something of benefit. ¹ It said books that the competent scholarly committees have found to contain violations and errors, and have not licensed for publication, may be sold to scholars, specialists and students for study and refutation, or for pulping and recycling. ¹ Selling them to others for circulation and use of their contents it held to be forbidden, as helping falsehood, on the rule that means take the ruling of their ends. ¹

Egypt's Dar al-Ifta published this fatwa on its site as no. 8948, dated 3 May 2026, among the fatwas of Grand Mufti Nazir Ayyad. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.