Harming your fellow Muslim is Haraam, to deceive
him is Haraam, exposing his womenfolk is Haraam. These types of harms are
connected to the telephone in the following ways;
A) A growing deception;
It is not permissible for a person who has taken
a responsibility to treat it with mistrust and deception. So if a person passes
on the telephone number of another person without his permission or him knowing,
then this is a type of deception. This is regardless of whether the person
wants to call the other for a worldly or religious reason, or whether it is to
gain some knowledge, recover some wealth, or anything that is akin to this.
It has been established from the hadeeth of
Jaabir ibn Abdullah al-Ansaaree [May Allaah be Pleased with him] who said that
the Prophet [May the Peace and Blessings of Allaah be upon him] who said, “If a
person tells another something then the man has turned around with a trust.”
[Narrated by Ahmad, Aboo Dawood and at-Tirmidhi]
The meaning of ‘turned around’ is that the man
has confided in him and has given him information, therefore the person should
be warned from turning to his right and to his left with this information,
being careful that others don’t hear [See: Fayd al-Qadeer by al-Manaawee
1/339]. Therefore the information that you have been entrusted with is a trust
and has been placed only upon you, if you tell others then you will have gone
against the command of Allaah. If you fail to uphold this trust, by giving away
this information that you have been trusted with, then you will be from the
oppressors. Therefore it is obligatory for you to conceal it as it promotes
good companionship, concealing the faults of others and it prevents gossiping
and backbiting spreading from within the brothers.
It says in Ihyaa ‘Uloom ad-Deen of Ghazaalee,
“Spreading the secrets of others is deception and Haraam”.
Marwaadee said, “Exposing another man’s secret
to others is worse than exposing your own secrets because it involves being
disgraceful from two aspects; it involves deception when you were trusted and
it involves you spreading rumours when you have received information. The harms
from these two are equal, if not one more than the other then they are both at
least equally blameworthy.”
Ar-Raaghib al-Asfahaanee said, “Secrets are
given in two ways:
-Firstly, one is told a secret and he is told to
keep it a secret, this is done verbally.
-Secondly, when on tries to find the secrets of
others, he does this by spying or eavesdropping.”
So if you save someone’s number on your phone
without their permission or them knowing, then this is like you are tricking
them, it is a kind of dishonesty and a breach of the possessions of others.
Further to this, if you pass the number on to
others then this is even worse, this is increasing in your deception over them.
This is ripping apart their rights.
So to summarise, if you record the telephone
number of another, without their permission or them knowing, then this is a
crime and a deception. This will compromise your trustworthiness and none would
do this except for the one who is weak in his religion and manners, especially
if one does it in the evil ways that we have mentioned. So fear Allaah, Oh
Slaves of Allaah, and don’t betray your trusts and don’t break your promises.
B) Phone
tapping;
Modern technology has developed with there being
various new inventions available today. Some of these inventions have been
designed for the purpose of entertainment or for people to indulge themselves
in wasteful activities.
From these inventions is the ability to secretly
listen to others people’s conversations. The day and night may go by and the
persons conversations are being recorded or listened to and he may not even
realise it. This is unlawful and not permissible, whether one of the people in
the conversation knows about it or not.
It has been authentically narrated from the
narration of Anas bin Maalik [May Allaah be Pleased with him] that the Prophet
[May the Peace and Blessings of Allaah be Upon him] said, ”If you hear people
conversing and they don’t like you listening, then hot lead will be poured into
his ears on the Day of Judegment.” [Narrated by Bukhaaree in his Saheeh and
something similar in Adab al-Mufrad]
C) Mixing between the sexes; from the immodest
actions is that the people of the house use these telephones to go behind their
guardian. They take the phones as an opportunity to do this, spreading diseases
and debasing themselves at the same time. They use these phones to mix or make
it a cause for physical mixing to occur.
The Prophet [Peace and Blessings of Allaah be Upon him] said, “Be
careful of entering onto women” [Narrated by Bukhaaree] so we have been
commanded to refrain from them.
Therefore it is upon the guardian to block all
the paths that lead to this. He needs to guarantee himself that his women are
not being idle, being amongst the foolish. From the ways he can do this; he can
place the telephone in a public location within his house, therefore nothing
will be hidden from his sight. Also, he should reduce the number of phones in
the house, especially not allowing his daughters to have their own phones in
their rooms. He needs to organise his house in an appropriate manner, so that
if someone calls, the people answering the phones have the correct attitude
when using the phone. That they are not secluded when talking on the phone,
thus the chastity and nobility will be secured and not hidden from him.
D) Excessive calling; be careful of spending too
much time on the phone, lest you become afflicted by making excessive calls.
For how many people are suffering from this? From the moment they wake in the
morning until they sleep, they need the phone. If they are prevented they
become like a child yearning for his mother. So they are preoccupied in
themselves with talking too much, from one place to another, to one person to
another. His soul is entertained whilst he is harming others.
We can’t do anything for these people except to
make Dua’a for them to be protected, to advise them about the effects of being
excessive.
E) Frightening people on the
phone; it is authentically narrated in the Sunnah that frightening another
Muslim is from the major sins. It is a great oppression. It has been narrated
that the Prophet [May the Peace and Blessings of Allaah be Upon him] said, “It
is not permissible for a Muslim to frighten another Muslim.” [Narrated by
Ahmad, Aboo Dawood, Tabaranee with a similar wording and al-Bazzar]
Likewise, it is also narrated
in the Sunnah that we are prohibited from pointing a weapon at your Muslim
brother; the reason being is that it may put fear into him, thus being
prohibited. Likewise, scaring your brother on the phone is not permissible.
Types of scaring another on the phone includes prank calls or calling someone and remaining silent.
[Taken from the book, 'The Manners and Characteristics when Talking on the Phone' by Shaykh Bakr Aboo Zayd (May Allaah have Mercy on him), Pg16-20]
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