Short answer
No. In the Hanafi school, and in all four schools, you need wudu (ablution) to touch the mushaf, the written Arabic copy of the Quran. You may still read it without touching it, or hold it with a separate cloth or cover that is not attached to it.
It is haram (not permitted) for a person without wudu, and for a person who needs ghusl, to touch the mushaf, including its blank margins and the cover bound to it. Holding it with a separate case, cloth or bag is allowed; using the sleeve of the clothes you are wearing is makruh (disliked).
Other madhhabs
- Maliki
- Agrees in principle, but allows a teacher and a student to touch the mushaf without wudu while teaching or learning, because of the hardship of renewing wudu.
Explanation
The Quran calls itself a noble book in a protected register that "none touch except the purified" (56:79). The Hanafi scholars read this ayah together with the letter the Prophet ﷺ sent to Yemen with Amr ibn Hazm, recorded in the Muwatta of Imam Malik, which says that no one should touch the Quran except a person who is pure. On this basis all four schools require wudu to touch the mushaf.
What counts as the mushaf: the pages with the Arabic text, the blank margins around it, and the cover that is stitched or glued to it. What does not: a separate zip case or box, a bag you carry it in, a clean cloth or tissue you hold it with, and the shelf it sits on. Many people keep a small cloth next to their mushaf for this reason.
What you can do without wudu: recite from memory, read while holding the pages with a separate cloth, listen to recitation and read from a screen. See reciting the Quran without wudu and reading the Quran on your phone without wudu. For copies that mix Arabic and English, see touching a Quran translation, and for young learners, children and the mushaf.
If you are in a state of major impurity (janabah, menstruation or postnatal bleeding), the rule is stricter: you may neither touch the mushaf nor recite it as Quran. Questions about periods are answered in the women section. If you find yourself without wudu often, the steps of wudu take only a few minutes and keep you in a state of respect with the book of Allah.
The evidence
Quran, Surah Al-Waaqia 56:77-79
إِنَّهُۥ لَقُرْءَانٌۭ كَرِيمٌۭ ﴿٧٧﴾ فِى كِتَٰبٍۢ مَّكْنُونٍۢ ﴿٧٨﴾ لَّا يَمَسُّهُۥٓ إِلَّا ٱلْمُطَهَّرُونَ ﴿٧٩﴾
Indeed, it is a noble Qur'an In a Register well-protected; None touch it except the purified.
The Quran describes itself as a book that only the purified touch, which the four schools take as the basis for needing wudu to touch the mushaf.
Where the ruling is recorded
- al-Hidaya, Kitab al-Taharah, chapter on menstruation and istihadah. States that one without wudu may not touch the mushaf except with a separate cover, and that touching it with one's sleeve is disliked.
- Radd al-Muhtar (Ibn Abidin), Kitab al-Taharah, discussion of what is forbidden to the junub and the one without wudu. Defines the mushaf as including its margins and attached binding, and the separate cover as the ghilaf munfasil.
- Mukhtasar Khalil with al-Sharh al-Kabir, Chapter on what is forbidden without wudu. The Maliki exception for the teacher and the learner.
This answer is pending review by the scholars on our team. Quran translation by Sahih International. Hadith Arabic from the standard editions of the six books and the Muwatta, with gradings as recorded there; the English is our own rendering. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.