Do not waste

Bills, receipts and important documents

Part: 02

Umm-e-Noor Attariyyah

Islam is a beautiful and respectful religion which not only encourages us to respect papers that contain the name of Allah or the prophets, but also emphasises respect for anything written in general, whatever its content or language may be. Such considerate behaviour towards the written word garners reward from the court of Allah Almighty and carries many practical benefits too in the world too.

There are many types of documents such as: birth certificates, passports, and identity cards, to certificates, bills, and letters, as well as receipts for food provisions, prescriptions or medical cards/reports, and many other papers that come out of the pockets of male family members.

Documents such as these contain written information and should therefore be carefully and safely stored if they may be needed in future, otherwise, they should be respectfully disposed of or stored with other sacred papers.

Documents relating to children’s education, whether they are recent or old, should never be discarded because they may be required in the future. One sister’s son had applied for a vacancy at a government institution when he was invited for an interview. Despite bringing all of his recent qualifications and other documents, he was unable to produce the transcript from his secondary school. Due to this seemingly minor oversight, he was not given the job. There are many situations like this where even old documents are required.

Similarly, children’s birth certificates and school certificates from earlier years should be kept safe because the information contained in these is often needed for completing. All information from the birth certificate, like name, father’s name and date of birth etc. should be written on school and madrasah forms; not having these details to hand can cause needless problems.

Marriage certificates, passports, identity cards, and property deeds should have at least two or three copies, that are then stored in different places because they are important.

Utility bills, such as gas bills, phone bills, and water bills, which are also used as official proofs of address, should be kept safe whether they have been paid or not. It is a good idea to organise old and new bills into separate files. These bills are useful, and often essential, when applying for a new bank account, residency, and first passports.

Important note: Storing all of your paper work into one bulky file without any order will only cause distress when you need to find a particular document. Hence, it is advisable to organise bills, letters, statements, etc. into separate folders in a logical order.