Answer
Wa `alaykum As-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
If a Muslim realizes that distributing copies of the translation of the Quran among non-Muslims or offering them as presents will help spread dawah, then there is nothing wrong in that.
In response to your question, Dr. Sano Koutoub Moustapha, Professor of jurisprudence and its principles at the International Islamic University, Malaysia, states:
Thanks very much and may Allah grant you success in your endeavors to spread Islam. However, there is no harm or prohibition in distributing copies of the translation of the meaning of the Quran for the sake of dawah (calling people to Islam).
Furthermore, you should do your best to provide more copies of the Quran to those people who are interested to know about Islam.
As for giving Quran to non-Muslims, I would prefer not to do so unless there is a hope that he or she might benefit from it.
In other words, if this would lead him or her to convert to Islam, I see no harm to do so. This is based on the legal maxim which says ‘necessities render an unlawful deed a lawful one.’
Surely, you should not give it or distribute it to those people who might damage it or abuse it intentionally. Our beloved Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) sent messages to unbelievers and those messages contained many verses from the Quran.
In addition to that, for the sake of dawah, one should do his best to introduce this Glorious Book to unbelievers with the hope that they convert to Islam later.
Surely, the prohibition stated in the Quranic verses that mean, {And lo! That verily is a tremendous oath, if you but knew that (this) is indeed a noble Qur’an in a Book kept hidden which none touches save the purified.} (Al-Waqi`ah 56:76-79) does not mean non-Muslims but the devils, as a response to the accusation in the verse meaning, {The devils did not bring it down.} (Ash-Shu`araa’ 26:210)
Allah Almighty knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.