Islam has never been opposed to advancement. However, some advancements are such that together with their benefits come many harms.
Whilst mobile technology and the mobile phone in particular has revolutionized the way we live, it is important that we utilize such technology appropriately.
In The Masjid
When attending the masjid one should switch off his mobile. Failure to do so will result in one being disrespectful to the house of Allah as well being a means of disturbance to others if the phone were to ring.
It is prudent not to even leave the phone in vibration mode. In this situation if the phone were to go off during salaah, not only will it divert the phone owner’s attention it will also disturb the person next to him.
Many people immediately after the completion of salaah check their phones for possible missed calls or messages. This shows that although one was physically standing in the court of Allah mentally he was elsewhere.
Thus we should switch our phones off before entering the masjid, and until we leave, not pay attention towards them.
Free Minutes
We all know about the amount of free minutes that are available on various contracts and the craze of gathering and using many minutes as possible.
Just because we have a contract which gives us 500 minutes free talk time does not necessarily mean that we have to use all of these 500 minutes before the end of the month.
Why should we talk unnecessarily and waste the precious minutes of our life for the sake of finishing off the free minutes on our phone.
Text Messages
One should not forward every text message to everyone immediately. One should first think if the message is correct Islamically and should also ponder whether it is appropriate for the person you are sending it to.
For example if the recipient is a senior one should ensure that the words are respectful
A trend nowadays is to send Eid and Jumuah greetings via text message. However, more often than not the story or phrase used as part of the message is not authentic. In such a case one inadvertently becomes a means of propagating something which is concocted.
Whenever one sends a text message it is prudent to write one’s name at the end of the text. This is important because it is possible that the person you are texting has not saved your number on his mobile.
As a result he will be confused when he receives the text for he will not know who the sender is.
Ring Tones
We should make sure that we have an appropriate ring tone on our mobile phone. To keep a musical ring tone is haram as the playing of music, or being a means of it being played is a sin.
It is quite unfortunate that even whilst performing tawaaf in front of the Ka’bah, or whilst presenting salaam to the Prophet sallallaahu ‘alayhi wasallam, peoples phone’s ring causing the sanctity of these sacred places to be tainted.
Many people have the Adhaan and Qur’aan recitation as ring tones on their mobile phones. This practice, while well intentioned, is not correct.
The purpose of the Adhaan is not to inform us that someone is phoning us. Likewise the Qur’aan was not revealed to serve us as an alert tone.
How Many Rings
If when ringing someone one finds that the phone cuts off after a few rings or diverts to an answering machine, then the caller may try again.
One should retry a maximum of three times for it may be that the person was busy and as he approached the phone it stopped ringing and thus he was unable to answer.
However, there are some phones that do not divert or cut-off and keep ringing. If that is the case then the caller should let it continue ringing for a while, and then consider it sufficient to put the phone down.
By not answering this indicates that the person is either busy or away from the phone.
Source: http://shaykh.wordpress.com/advices/etiquettes-of-the-mobile-phone/
