Throwing paper with probable part of hadeeth on it

3-1-2017 | IslamWeb

Question:

Assalaamu alaykum. I had a leaflet that had this line in the bottom: "Anything that goes against your heart is sin." It was written in English. I know that there is a hadith with the same meaning, but the wording is not exactly like this. In any case, I needed to get rid of the paper since I was going somewhere, so I threw it away. Did I sin?

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger. 

An authentic hadeeth with this meaning was narrated by Muslim on the authority of An-Nawwaas ibn Sam‘aan Al-Ansaari, may Allah be pleased with him. It says that he asked the Prophet, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, about righteousness and sin. He, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said, “Righteousness is (having a) good character, and sin is that which wavers in your heart and you dislike that people find out about it.” [Muslim]

The person who threw this paper is not considered disrespectful of the hadeeth; accordingly, he bears no sin for it. However, it would have been better to dispose of this paper in any other way other than throwing it in the trash.

Allah knows best.