Touching the Mus-haf via the Screen of the Mobile
Technology has advanced such that the Mus-haf is saved in mobile phones and one is able to read from this electronic Mus-haf. If one who is reciting via the electronic Mus-haf in the mobile intends to flip the pages of the Mus-haf, is it permissible to touch the screen of the mobile while he is impure?
Answer: Reciting the Qur’an does not require purity from the Hadath except the Junub (person who is in major sexual impurity) with a difference among the scholars. However, it is not obligatory on one who intends to recite the Qur’an to be in a state of purity, because Allaah (Subhaanahu wa Ta’ala) says in Surat Aal-‘Imraan (3:191):
ٱلَّذِينَ يَذْكُرُونَ ٱللَّهَ قِيَٰمًا وَقُعُودًا وَعَلَىٰ جُنُوبِهِمْ
“Those who remember Allaah (always, and in prayers) standing, sitting, and lying down on their sides.”
And the Qur’an is the most noble Dhikr (remembrance). The Prophet (Salla-Allaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) used to remember Allaah in all his states.
Accordingly, it is permissible for one who wills, to recite the Qur’an from his memory without being in a state of purity. However, it is obligatory for him to be pure in order to touch the Mus-haf. This is with the consensus of all the ‘Ulama.
Does the electronic Mus-haf in the mobiles take the same ruling as the Mus-haf in the form of paper? That is to say, is purity obligatory to touch it? Is it permissible to touch them without having purified oneself?
The Contemporary ‘Ulamaa’ differed regarding this issue.
Let us first know how these electronic Mus-haf work and accordingly the ruling will be set for it.
The specialists say that these Mus-haf are forms of electric waves and processed through certain programs till it appears in a form of Mush-haf. If the Mus-haf in the mobile is switched off, then all the scholars are of the view that it is permissible to touch the screen of the mobile.
However, if the Mus-haf is switched on, is it permissible to touch it?
Some of the scholars are of the opinion that the electronic Mus-haf takes the same ruling as the paper Mus-haf. This is because this is a development of production. The Mus-haf was not existing in the era of the Prophet (Salla-Allaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam). It was on boards, palm tree leaves, and so forth; therefore, it goes under the same ruling.
However, most of the contemporary scholars say that it is permissible to touch the Mus-haf that is on the mobile, and they differed in their evidences. Some said because it is a form of electric waves processed by certain programs. Others said that because mobile phones may contain Qur’an and other things, it takes the ruling of Tafseer books.
Some of them said that mobile phones consist of two screens, an inner screen and an external screen. Accordingly, touching the electronic Mus-haf will take the ruling of the paper Mus-haf and touching the screen is touching the Mus-haf with a barrier, because one is touching the outward (external) screen.
Accordingly, the most preponderant point of view is that it is permissible to touch the electronic Mus-haf on mobile phones.
Source:
Qadaya Fiqhiyya Mu’asirah (Contemporary Fiqh Issues) by Shaikh Sa’d ibn Turkiy al-Khathlan
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