Question: is the addition sign which is on the clothes considered a cross? And is it allowed to pray wearing?
Answer: “Yes, I was forced to innovate an innovation [I.e. a worldly innovation] to remove the crosses which the Muslims have been afflicted with even on their calculators. So this is a cross. Like this, it is necessary for the meeting of two heads: above, below, right, left. What is important is to remove the image of the cross through the simplest way. If it is possible to remove it entirely, then no doubt that is better. As for the issue that the cross is required to have its tail longer than its other sides, for example, then this is a very strange rigidity*. In my opinion, the purpose behind that is dispersion of the oppositions which began to spread not just in our clothes…”
[Taken from Silsilatul Huda wan-Nur no. 861 ]
Translated By
Faisal Ibn Abdul Qaadir Ibn Hassan
Abu Sulaymaan
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*Translator’s Note:
However, other Scholars of our time did not consider the addition symbol as a cross.
The Permanent Committee was asked:
Question: Are mathematical symbols such as the plus and multiplication signs considered representations of the cross?
Answer: “No, they are not, as they are representations of pure scientific terminology”.
Shaikh Abdul-Muhsin al-‘Abbad (may Allah preserve him) was asked:
Question: What is the principle regarding the cross? We see many things which have intersections. Does a person avoid them or is there no blame on him? Like the addition sign in math and some caps or Shamaaghs which have intersecting lines. Likewise inside some watches and some bottles of medicine?
Answer: “The cross is what is in the form of a person. It is two intersecting lines. One of them is lengthwise and the other width-wise…likewise using the addition sign on the calculator, there is no preventative and it is not said it is a cross. A cross is only that which is in this form [i.e. mentioned above]” [Sharh Tirmidhi no. 335]
Shaikh Ibn ul-Uthaymeen (may Allah have mercy upon him) was asked:
Question: Also the addition sign, is it a cross?
Shaikh: “It is not a cross”. [Liqaa al-Bab al-Maftooh (no. 21)]
And this was also the opinion of Shaikh Muqbil bin Haadi al-Wadi’ee (may Allah have mercy upon him) as was mentioned by Shaikh Ma’mar al-Qadasi in al-Ihtisaab Fi Qawaaid al-Hisaab (pg. 5)
