Question:
Asalaamu Alaikum
Is it compulsory to have wudu when reading the quran on one’s phone or iPad via quran app? I was having a conversation with someone and this was their opinion, they said that because it’s a screen and not actually the quran in a book form that wudu is not compulsory.
Jazakallah for your response
Answer:
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Wudhu is required to touch the Quran (mushaf). Qur’an is the divine word of Allah Ta’ala hence it deserves utmost respect, regardless of the form it may be in. Therefore, one should not touch the actual text that appears on the screen of the mobile phone etc. without Wudhu. Touching other parts of the device, however, will be permitted.
While some scholars have argued that the screen itself is not the actual text of the Quran, therefore one may touch it without Wudhu, caution and respect requires one to be with Wudhu.
If one is in the state of janabah (major ritual impurity i.e. in a state which necessitates ghusl) then one cannot read the Quran even without touching it until he does ghusl and attains purity.
And Allah Ta’āla Knows Best.
Mufti Arshad Ali
Darul Iftaa, Jaamia Madinatul Uloom (Trinidad)
