❓ Question: I own a lot of useful books and references, but I read only a few. However, some people borrow books from me. Is it a sin to keep so many books?
✍🏻 Answer: It is perfectly all right to collect and keep books in a library, for personal use and for guests to read. It does not matter if the books are not all used. By lending books to trustworthy people to read, it can be a good charity project. As a means to pleasing Allāh, the project helps in the dissemination of useful knowledge, and it meets Allāh’s call “Help you one another unto birr and taqwā…” (5: 2) It also meets the Prophet’s (peace and blessings of Allāh be upon him) call in this ḥadīth: “Allāh aids the one who aids another.” [Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (2699)]
📚 Source: Anthology of Fatwas by Scholars of the Holy Land – A fatwa by Shaykh ibn Bāz (1/65-66)