stand except on occasions when they used to stand. However, if people are accustomed to standing for one another, it may be argued that, were they to refrain from standing in honor of a copy of the Quran while maintaining this custom, their conduct would be neither good nor praiseworthy. Rather, they would be more deserving of censure, since they stand for one another but not for a copy of the Quran, which is more deserving of this honor. The respect and reverence due to it are not due to anything else. Indeed, none but someone in a state of ritual purity may touch the Quran, whereas people touch one another while in a state of ritual impurity. This is especially so because standing for it honors Allah’s sacred things and symbols in a way that standing for anything else does not. Those leading jurists who have mentioned people standing in honor of a copy of the Quran have done so approvingly, not disapprovingly.

As for opening a copy of the Quran to seek an omen, nothing concerning this has been transmitted from the early generations, and later scholars differed over it. Al-Qādī Abū Ya‘lā mentioned this disagreement: he reported that Ibn Battah practiced it, while others disliked it. This is not the kind of good omen that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, loved, for he loved good omens and disliked superstitious omens.

The good omen he loved is when someone undertakes something, or resolves to undertake it, placing his trust in Allah, and then hears a pleasing word that cheers him—for example, hearing someone call out, “O Najīh (successful one)! O Muflih (prosperous one)! O Sa‘īd (fortunate one)! O Mansūr (victorious one)!” or something similar, as when “on his journey of migration he met