Smartphone apps connect Hamilton Muslims with Islam

Affaf Ahtisham receives an alert on his iPhone.

It is not a text message. Rather, it is one of five daily reminders for the 23-year-old to pray.

Ahtisham uses iPray an iPhone app that is among a host of smartphone offerings that aid Muslims in the observance of Islamic rituals.

"We can be connected and are able to look up something, such as text from the Quran, at a moments notice, and anywhere," says Ahtisham, the co-chair of the youth committee at the Muslim Association of Hamilton and a recent McMaster University graduate.

At sunrise one of five prescribed prayer times Ahtisham receives his cue to pray. If in a new, unfamiliar place, he will use the compass embedded in the smartphone app to pinpoint the direction of Mecca.

But he cautions that the app is an aid before prayer and typically, is not used during prayer.

"All practicing Muslims have a few small chapters or verses from the Quran memorized, which they recite during the prayers, so they usually do not use aids like the physical book, or for that matter, an app, while praying," says Ahtisham.

Digital devotion

Islamic smartphone apps are nothing new. Several smartphone apps, including iPray and iQuran, developed by England-based Guided Ways Technologies Ltd. have won worldwide popularity within the Muslim community.

"During the first week of Ramadan, we have a sudden surge of downloads of these Islamic apps," says Fahad Gilani, operations manager and lead developer at Guided Ways Technologies.

Gilani says downloads of Islamic apps during Ramadan rises upward 10 times the ordinary rate.

"During the month of Ramadan, people tend to spend more time with prayer and spend more time in the mosque," he says.

The app maker offers at least a dozen smartphone apps available on all three major platforms that range from free to a couple of dollars.

Muslims observing the holy month of Ramadan can use smartphone apps to provide a reminder for a daily prayer, recite a daily prayer or read the Quran.

Though, the smartphone apps are not solely to mark Ramadan. For believers, there are Islamic apps that help its users learn accurate Arabic pronunciations of a daily prayer, locate the nearest restaurant offering Halal foods or pinpoint qiblah, the direction that Muslims face when engaged in prayer all on a smartphone.

Similarly, smartphone apps exist to enable believers of every religious stripe to read holy book verses, receive prayer reminders or locate the precise direction of prayer.

Unlike in the Muslim world, Canadian mosques do not broadcast daily calls to prayer from external speakers. But depending on the smartphone app, it will sound the call to prayer.

"Before I started using these apps, I would not remember to pray at the appropriate time," says Ahmad Iqtidar Manzoor, 17.

"I would just completely forget about it in my busy day and regret it later."

"It really makes me compare what I am doing with my religious priorities and leads me to pray, Manzoor says.

Traditionally, the Quran is toted in a pocket or purse. But Gilani says, increasingly, Muslims are opting to use the smartphone app.

"When theyre on the bus or when theyre waiting in the line or just free during a lunch break, they just pull out their phone, which they always have with them and pull out the app they want."

Ahtisham says his smartphone app has replaced the pocket Quran he would carry day-to-day. Now, with the swift swipe of his thumb, he can read the religious text of Islam at anyplace.

"Since I got my smartphone, I would just turn it on and read through it," he says.

No substitution

Gilani says their suite of smartphone apps is available in at least 14 languages, including English, Urdu and Farsi.

"Theres a need to be able to read the Quran in your language and essentially, the translation is important," Gilani says.

Translations, Manzoor says, are especially useful because he is not fluent in Arabic.

"It makes me understand what they really mean by offering translation in English, which leads me to really feel what I am saying and make a connection with it," he says. Ahtisham, who is also not fluent in Arabic, agrees.

"I can only catch things here and there so I do need the translations and also the commentary."

Even still, he says, the smartphone app cannot substitute Islamic teachings by an elder.

"That human element is sometimes still missing from apps."

"I need someone to verify that my pronunciation is right because I think Im getting it right but I might not be," he says. "I do need a teacher or tutor to check up on me to see if Im doing what Im supposed to be doing and not making mistakes."

So accustomed to the reminder for a daily prayer, Manzoor says he is likely to forget without it.

"We might get so dependent on these apps that if we were to live without them, we would forget a lot of our religious duties," he says. "If one day this app doesnt remind me, I wont remember it myself."

Sanctity and skeptics

Gilani downplays concerns of dependency.

"Its become more accessible and I think the more accessible a thing is, the more people want to use it," he says.

Yet for all his enthusiasm, Gilani acknowledges limiting factors still exist. He recalls the early years of the app development and worry over preserving the sanctity of Islam.

Some considered carrying a smartphone with a Quran smartphone app in a restroom disrespectful, because you must be clean to handle the sacred text, he says.

"If you were in a restroom, for example, you wouldnt recite the Quran anyway," he says. "You would wait until youre in a clean place to recite it."

Gilani likens the smartphone app to memory.

"You switch it on when you want to use it. You recite the Quran when you want to recite it and you switch it off and thats it."

The app maker consults with religious leaders and scholars to ensure accuracy of the smartphone apps, he says.

"We got to ensure whatever we provide is 100 per cent accurate." "We do make sure that we get the right people involved when were making the app."

Tradition and technology

Gilani says Islamic smartphone apps have increased the accessibility of Islam to believers.

"We preserve it in a digital form," he says.

Among its worldwide users, Gilani says, smartphone app users tend to be in their 20s, he says, but the sheer accessibility of the apps is drawing older users, too.

"In a way, weve increased the respect that we have for the book," he says. "Weve increased the amount of normal users."

Ahtisham says accessibility is key, especially in Hamilton, where Islamic bookstores are scarce, forcing some to make a trek to Toronto.

That is something Manzoor says his parents appreciate.

"Because of their busy schedules, they sometimes forget to remind us of our religious duties and in that case, these apps help us remember and complete our religious duties," he says.

Ahtisham says Islamic smartphone apps are much like its non-religious counterparts.

"With technology, its just like anything else," he says. "Theres always the good side and the bad side."

"If were using technology on a wiser note, then definitely, it really does help us connect with our faith better."