Hadith: It was mentioned in the letter that the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) sent to ‘Amr ibn Hazm that no one should touch the Qur'an unless he is pure

عن عبد الله بن أبي بكر بن حزم، أن في الكتاب الذي كتبه رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم لعَمْرو بن حَزْم: «أن لا يَمَسَّ القرآن إلا طَاهر».
[صحيح] - [رواه مالك والدارمي]

‘Abdullāh ibn Abi Bakr ibn Hazm reported that it was mentioned in a letter that the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) sent to ‘Amr ibn Hazm that: "No one should touch the Qur'an unless he is pure."
[Authentic hadith] - [Maalik - Ad-Daarimi]

Explanation

The Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) sent a letter to ‘Amr ibn Hazm when the latter was the judge in Najrān. It was a long letter that contained many of the Shariah rulings, such as the rulings on inheritance, Zakah and charity, and blood money. It is a well-known text that was accepted by Muslim scholars as authentic. "No one should touch the Qur'an unless he is pure': touch here means touching it directly without a barrier. Accordingly, holding the Qur'an with a separating medium, such as carrying it in a bag or case or turning its pages with a stick, is not included in this prohibition because there is no direct touch. The 'Qur'an' here refers to what the Qur'an is written on, such as boards, papers, parchments and the like. It does not mean 'speech' (verbal Qur'an), because speech is not touched; rather, it is heard. The word 'pure' has four possible interpretations. It may refer to: 1. The Muslim, as Allah says: {Indeed the polytheists are unclean/impure.} [Sūrat At-Tawbah: 28] 2. The person free of impurity, like when the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said about the cat: "It is not impure." 3. The one pure from Janābah. 4. The one who performed ablution. All of these meanings of ‘pure’, according to Shariah, are possibly meant here in this Hadīth. There is no evidence to hold any of them preponderant over the others. Therefore, it is preferable to adopt the last meaning, which refers to the 'pure' as someone who has performed ablution to purify himself of minor Hadath (urinating, defecating, passing gas, sleeping). This is more certain than the other possible meanings and it is in agreement with the opinion of the majority of scholars, including the four Imāms and their followers, and it is also the safer choice.