I entered the mosque with full fervor in me ready to worship my creator.  The Imam started the prayer with full concentration and attention towards the Almighty. As soon as the Takbeer was said, there was a silent atmosphere all over the Mosque. The Imam starts recitation of the Quran in a sweet and distinctive manner which moves the hearts of all the followers. Everyone is trying to focus fully on the words of the Imam and to the fact that they are standing in front of their creator. Now, all of a sudden, from among the crowd and amidst all the silence, a ringtone sounds "tere bin main yun kaise jiya….tere bin…". The Imam starts struggling with his recitation and gets confused due to the music around him. The worshippers lose the spiritual connection which they had achieved with their lord. Most of the people feel anger venting inside them but they cannot do anything neither can they rebuke the careless person.  There spreads an aura of disturbance all around the place. It is like mixing wine with water. A holy place like a mosque gets polluted with stupid ringtones and irritating songs containing music which is clearly forbidden by Islam. Although it is clearly written on the entrance of the mosque that "PLEASE KEEP YOUR MOBILES SWITCHED OFF"; still the person failed to take this notice seriously and did not check his mobile phone. A Mosque is a place where the worshippers seek to attain a close connection with their lord. For this they divert their complete attention towards the prayer and the Quranic verses that are being recited inside it. Also Mosque is the only place where one is away from the worldly distractions like Noises, Traffic, music and obviously the whisperings of the devil. It is a place where people come exclusively for worshipping the Almighty and leaving all other tasks aside.

So what kind of a strange act is it to let such a thing happen which interrupts one's attention which is definitely one of the most important conditions for the prayer to be accepted. Why can't it just be switched off before entering or even kept on a vibration mode so that the other people do not get disturbed? Why has the Muslim ummah become so absent minded so as to forget switching off the mobile phones in the mosques, but when they have a meeting; they definitely do it? Why do they repeatedly act the same in spite of getting regular indications? Why are we forgetting that respect for the Mosques is tantamount to respect for our Religion? Or are we taking it all too easily? These questions often arise in the mind of any serious Muslim worshipper who is fed up of hearing these musical instruments sound time and again during the prayers. The worse thing is that when these people get a call and their phone is ringing they don't even think about switching it off during the prayer, thinking that moving their hands too much and switching it off would nullify their prayer. They just press the ignore button and send the busy signal to the caller. The caller on the other hand, not knowing the circumstances retries and the person praying again gets it. He thus repeats the above act and the cycle continues until the prayer is over, thus disturbing a lot of people around him. Some even go to the extent of letting the phone ring, thinking that it would be a means of prayer nullification if they even move themselves a bit. So what about the prayers of the other people in the mosque? Do they think that they can attend the prayer with complete devotion and concentration when some nettlesome bollywood song is being heard around the place?

Here is a great hadith which will make us understand the gravity of this situation better. It was narrated that Abu Sa'eed said: The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) went into i'tikaaf (retreat) in the mosque, and he heard them reciting Qur'aan out loud. He drew back the curtain and said, "Each of you is conversing privately with his Lord, so do not disturb one another or raise your voices above one another when reading Qur'aan – or he said, when praying."

(Narrated by Abu Dawood, 1332) 

We should note in this last hadeeth that the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) forbade the people to distract one another from prayer by their prayer or Qur'aan-reading. He forbade people to distract others from prayer by their prayer or Qur'aan-reading. He did not like the prayer or Qur'aan-reading of one person to distract another person from his prayer. So what about ringtones and music which are in themselves haraam.

Ibn Muhayreez, a great saint of Islam(may Allaah have mercy on him) is reported to have said: "Speaking in the mosque is idle talk, except for one who is praying, or remembering his Lord, or asking for help or giving help." So when simple talking about worldly matters is a sin, then imagine what would it be like to disturb others by using a forbidden means i.e Music. In conclusion: Islam encourages focus and humility in prayer, and encourages us to persist in that. What we see of these mobile phones in the situation you mention is something that causes people to lose the proper focus and humility in prayer, because it is a disturbance that affects the spirit and tranquility of prayer.

Recently, while attending the Friday prayers, a song started playing on a mobile phone of some man around me, because someone was calling him. At first, I thought that he would switch it off. But the ringtone continued to sound in his pocket and he was not even concerned about it. When the call ended, we breathed a sigh of relief thinking that now we could direct our attention towards the valuable prayer but just after a few a seconds he again got the call and he was not even moving himself to shut the irritating noise. This continued until the Imam completed the prayer. Later the guy stood up and ran away.

I think the most of the people are having confusion in this manner. They are of the opinion that their prayer would be nullified because of moving their hands to switch handle the mobiles. But to them my answer, is what about the prayer of the greater number of people in the mosque which are being indirectly spoiled.

Also I remember one more incident when the phone of a guy rang and some lady was calling him. He intended to press the ignore button; but instead went on pressing the Receive button. To his dismay, he then even pressed the loudspeaker button. Then every person in the mosque was hearing the voice of the woman which is obviously forbidden inside it. The Imam rebuked him by saying "Masjid or bazaar ko ek hi nazar karte ho kya?". My dear friends, have they taken the mosques as places of entertainment or are they for calling upon the Almighty. Up until the last decade, the mosques were peaceful places where one was free from all the distractions, troubles and the evil whisperings. Now we can see in almost all the mosques that somebody would be there with their mobile switched on and ringtones buzzing! What can we call this? Is it the carelessness of the people or one more evil design of the Satan? Well, whatever it is, one must say that it is definitely a troublesome, irritating and evil thing to do and should be well taken care of. If we become heedless in this matter, then the day will not be far when people would themselves be sitting and singing inside mosques! So my dear brothers, when you enter a mosque next time, just check that ringing device in your pocket and switch it off. It would just take a little memory management and a couple of seconds. And it would save a lot of people from getting irritated and disturbed! Failure to do so would result in violating the sanctity of a pious and holy place!