Assalamualaikum, Hello there,

My question today is quite different question in my opinion in a sense that i have not seen many people asking question about it.

My question is that what things exactly fall in the category of disrespecting the religious things (Quran, Or a frame with Allah’s name, the qibla). Sometimes we hear from parents and other people of religious knowledge that for example, “don’t point feet towards Kaaba or Quran…it is disrespectful” “don’t give your back towards Kabah”. What are the reality of such sentences in light of Islam? Are they really taken as disrespecting things of religion, even if the person who does that does not intend to disrespect any religious ritual or thing.

Yes i have heard from people of knowledge that they quote Hadith (i am not sure of their authenticity) which prohibit answering call of nature in direction of facing or giving back towards Kabah.

Now the question arises, what will decide what actually falls in the category of disrespecting even if the person does not intend to disrespect. Is it left for individual to decide and give religious verdict according to his own taste and culture? If that’s the case then this list can keep going own, like someone might go one step ahead and say that doing a sin, in a house which is near masjid is also disrespecting the masjid (Which is a symbol (emblem) of Allah, “Sha’ir Allah”) then someone may go one step ahead and say that doing a sin in the same society where there is a masjid is also disrespecting masjid.

And if its upon a culture to decide, so according to some culture it is disrespectful to sit by showing your back to an elder, and in some cultures it is not. So the ruling on sitting with your back facing towards Kabah would be Haram for one belonging to former culture and not for the one that belongs to the latter culture?. This list can also keep on going. According to cultures etc.

Or is it Allah himself that would decide what is actually disrespecting or we can say violation of the sanctity of Allah. I think this makes the most appropriate sense, so only those things which are told by revealed by Allah through prophet, can fall into categories of disrespecting or violation, even if the person does not intend to disrespect religion through it. For example one may say that answering call of nature, by giving back or facing Kabah is not appropriate and he may give a reference to such a Hadith that i talked about above, then it would be all good. Or something else that is proved by some other religious text to be disrespecting, which would all be good.

But by giving examples like “it is disrespectful to point feet towards Kabah, because if your father would be sitting near you, would you point feet towards them?”

The point is it totally depends, some cultures do not view this as disrespect, some cultures do view this as disrespect. And even in those cultures that view this as disrespect, some fathers do not think like that and are totally okay with their children pointing feet towards them. So this can go on. And by the same token, NUMEROUS scenarios can be made like, would it be disrespecting (meaning i will also get a sin for disrespecting religion) if i do a sin in the same room, where there is Quran in a cupboard? Would this also be disrespecting religion if a say a foul/swear word in the same room where there is a frame of Ayat-ul-Kursi? Would it be disrespecting religion everytime I say a foul word to anyone or even randomly, because with this same mouth, sometimes i read Quran too? Would it be disrespecting Quran if my brother is reading it by sitting in floor and i sit above in a sofa in the same room or beside him? Would it be disrespecting Quran if i place a CD of a movie which has a less appropriate cover on CD box, near the Quran in the same table?

So i wanted to know, what does Islam say about this theme?