Dear All,
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is a dynamic field that
gives a great impact to the society. It drives many of today's
innovations, offers enormous potential for further innovations and
developments, and brings changes to social life in the coming decades.
Great efforts have been carried by many Muslim scholars, scientists and
intellectuals in evaluating the impacts of ICT towards Islam, and at the
same time initiating ways to promote Islamic knowledge and information
through the using of ICT, particularly World Wide Web (WWW) technology.
There are Millions of web sites supporting the use of ICTs which enable
the Islamic knowledge to be effectively transmitted to the ummah.
Information Technology (IT) is defined as "the use of computers and
telecommunications for the processing and distribution of information in
digital, audio,video and other forms". Based on this definition, those who
are unfamiliar with Islam might be questioning themselves about the
relationship between IT and the book revealed more than 1400 years ago.
Al-Quran is the book of knowledge and the main source of reference in
Islam, which contains general principles applicable for all times and
places. Quran – stresses the importance of seeking both divine and
worldly knowledge from the very first revelation:
[ÇÞÑà ÈÓã ÑÈøöß ÇáÐí ÎáÞ * ÎáÞ ÇáÅäÓÇä ãä ÚáÞò]
"Read in the name of your Lord who created * created man from a clot ….."
Muslims are encouraged to continuously seek and increase our knowledge as
those who possess more knowledge will be highly respected in Islam as
Allah says:
[Þá åá íÓÊæí ÇáÐíä íÚáãæä æÇáÐíä áÇ íÚáãæä]
"Say: Are those who know equal to those who know not?" 5
Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in most of his hadith has indicated the
importance of knowledge in our lives. In one of his famous hadith, he
stated that acquiring all types of knowledge is made obligatory to all
muslims.
((ØáÈ ÇáÚáã ÝÑíÖÉ Úáì ßá ãÓáã)) – ÑæÇå ÇÈä ãÇÌå -
"Seeking knowledge ('ilm) is compulsory to all muslims" – Narrated by Ibn
Maajah
The Prophet (pbuh) and early Muslim scholars have possessed an exemplary
model on how one should deal with the knowledge. They employed whatever
means which were available at that time to access information, store,
process and distribute their ideas and knowledge. As a result of their
positive attitudes towards knowledge, Islam emerged as a great
civilization for centuries.
Today huge Islamic Knowledge is available on web, we just need to help
the users in its access depending on ground realities in Pakistan. Apart
from this there are number of other ways where vehicle of ICT can be used
to educate muslims in performing religious responsibalities.
Virtual reality can be a useful technology to be adopted in developing
certain Islamic application such as practice and training for hajj. Users
can be "practically" trained on how to correctly perform hajj activities
like tawaf, saei' and getting into ihram garments. This can enhance their
understanding on how to carry out Islamic practices.
All ICT professionals in Pakistan are requested to contribute and give
their suggestions to make some web enabled arrangements and also use
mobile phone applications to take the concept further.
GOD Almighty may bless all of you and keep you and your families safe.
With my warm regards,
Ammar Jaffri
0300-8551479
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