What mosques can do with decades of accumulated old Qurans
Nearly every established masjid in Britain has the same problem. Somewhere — a back room, a cupboard in the imam's office, a shelf above the shoe racks — sit the accumulated religious materials of a community. Old copies of the Qur'an donated over the years, worn out madrasa workbooks that the kids used, paperback du'a booklets that fell apart, printed Eid materials from past years, laminated posters with verses from Surah al-Fatihah.
None of it can be thrown out. Most of it hasn't been used in a decade. And every few years, the trustees have a conversation about "doing something about it" that ends without a decision because nobody has the time to organise a proper burial and nobody wants to mishandle sacred material.
This guide is for you. Here's how to clear that storeroom respectfully, practically, and at a reasonable cost.
The options, honestly
Self-managed burial at your own cemetery partner
If your masjid already has a partnership with a local Muslim burial ground and you have volunteers willing to organise the transport, dig, and interment, this is the most cost-effective route. Expect it to take:
- 1 day of organising with the cemetery and getting plot permission
- Half a day of sorting and boxing the material
- A van hire (£40–£80)
- 2–3 hours of manual digging or a paid gravedigger (£50)
- A donation to the cemetery (usually £100–£300)
Total: £250–£500 of direct cost, plus around two person-days of volunteer time. Viable for a well-resourced masjid doing this once every 5–10 years.
Using an established bulk service
The alternative is to outsource the whole thing. BookBurial offers bulk rates specifically for masajid and schools: £7 handling plus £8 per kg for the first 5kg, dropping to £5 per kg above that. For a typical storeroom clear-out of 20–50kg, the total comes to between £115 and £260 — often less than what the masjid spends on a single event's catering.
We collect on pallet from most UK postcodes at additional cost, or you can arrange couriered delivery.
A practical clear-out checklist
Regardless of which route you take, here's how to approach the clear-out itself:
- Announce it first. Put a notice in the Friday khutbah or on the noticeboard. "We're clearing old Qurans for respectful burial on [date]. If anyone has items at home to include, please bring them in before [cut-off]." You'll be surprised how much comes through the door.
- Set up a receiving station. A clean table, clean sheets or cloth, labelled boxes. Anything that comes in gets placed straight into a shrouded box — never on the floor.
- Separate the stream. Some items may be reusable and shouldn't be buried. A Qur'an with a broken spine but legible pages can be re-bound for £15 and given to a new learner. Books in poor condition that still contain worship value can sometimes be donated to prisons or overseas madrasas (Islamic Relief and Muslim Hands run such programmes).
- Weigh the final pile. Bathroom scales work for individual boxes; a luggage scale works for the total if you use a tarp sling. Round up to the nearest kilo.
- Document. If your masjid is a registered charity, photograph the process and keep a receipt of the burial cost for your annual report. Community members give more generously when they can see where funds go.
The volume question
A typical mid-sized UK masjid doing a full clear-out after a decade of accumulation tends to produce between 15kg and 80kg of religious material. Larger masajid with active madrasas can produce 100kg+. A rough rule of thumb: each active madrasa class of 20 children generates around 2–3kg of unusable material per year (worn workbooks, torn du'a sheets, damaged readers).
Paying for it
Three models work well for masajid:
- From the general fund. Literature burial is a legitimate community service, and most committees approve the cost from general operating funds without complication.
- As a Sadaqa Jariya appeal. A short Friday announcement and collection specifically for literature burial typically raises 2–3x the actual cost, with the surplus funding the next round.
- Pass-through for families. Many masajid act as a collection point for families in the community and then charge families a small pass-through fee to cover the bulk burial — often half of what it would cost them individually.
Get in touch for a masjid quote
If you're considering a clear-out, contact us with your rough volume and postcode. We'll give you a tailored quote covering bulk burial plus pallet collection if needed, and we'll work to your timing — not ours. For active madrasas, we also offer an annual collection programme.