Question
Many mosques in my country keep water bottles especially around mihrab in case anyone gets thirsty. These bottles commonly have a "do not litter" icon which is also known as tidyman icon (a man throwing trash in a basket). I saw that attendees are prostrating in front of them, which alarmed me. Attendees and even the mosques didn't know that the image exists on them. I have informed some mosques and requested to tear the labels out. What is your recommendation to the mosques that have them and the Muslims who know this?
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
As-salamu alaykum wa-rahmatullahi wa-barakatuh.
Brother in Islam,
We appreciate your concern for the sanctity of the mosque,. May Allah accept you for his deen..
In principle, what the scholars dislike in the place of prayer is an image of a living being that is displayed in a manner that resembles the veneration of images, such as a picture hung in front of the worshipper. Two conditions are attached to this. The first is that the image be of a size and clarity that a person standing can make out its features. Images so small that the limbs and features are not discernible to a person standing at a normal distance are not counted, and the jurists state this explicitly. The second is that it be an actual depiction of a living being, with a face and features. The tidyman icon is a tiny abstract symbol, with no face and no features, printed on a label, and it is in the category of a pictogram, not an image. A person prostrating on the floor of a mosque with a bottle of water in the vicinity is prostrating to Allah, and the bottle has no share in his prayer.
Accordingly, there is no fault on the mosques that keep such bottles, and there is no fault on the worshippers. The prostration of those you saw was valid and untainted. Our recommendation to the mosques is that they carry on as they are, and our recommendation to you and to the Muslims who have noticed this is to let it go. Going from mosque to mosque asking for labels to be torn off creates unease and gives the impression that Muslims are troubled by things that the Shariah has not troubled them with, and that harms the religion more than a pictogram on a bottle. If a mosque wishes, out of tidiness or preference, to keep bottles out of the direct line of the prayer niche, it may do so, but it is not required.
Allah knows best
Mufti Mirza-Zain Baig
And Allah Ta'ālā knows best.
Answered by
Mufti Mirza-Zain Baig
B.Ed, CSAA
Montréal, Canada · Canadian Centre for Islamic Research and Ifta
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