The Egyptian Fatwa Office responded to the use of mobile phones during prayer, stating that the prayer in this case is valid. Dr. Amr Al-Wardani, Secretary of Fatwas and Director of Family Affairs at the office, explained in a live broadcast via the official page of the Egyptian Fatwa Office that the mobile phone allows the imam to avoid flipping through pages extensively.
A video of an imam, purportedly Egyptian, interrupting his prayer to use his mobile phone has sparked widespread debate on social media. According to the Egyptian newspaper "Al-Watan," the video was recorded during the Taraweeh prayer on the first day of Ramadan at the Riyad Al-Jannah Mosque No. 6680 located on Cambopello Road, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. The live broadcast lasted over two hours and twenty-five minutes, with multiple imams leading the prayers. At the 103rd minute, it was this imam’s turn, who appeared in the video reading the Quran from his phone because he was not able to memorize the Surah he was reading from.
The Canadian imam stumbled after reciting Al-Fatiha and while reading verse 55 from Surah Al-Baqarah: "And [recall] when you said, 'O Moses, we will not believe you until we see Allah outright.' And there struck you a thunderbolt while you were looking on." This prompted one of the imams to correct him when he noticed that the imam lingered too long after reading Al-Fatiha and had not memorized the Quranic verse. The imam then continued his recitation for two minutes before completing the prayer, handing over to another imam to finish the rest of the Taraweeh prayer.
Social media users circulated a short video of the imam browsing or reading from his phone during the prayer, leading to a wide debate and some suggesting that the incident occurred in Egypt, which was later proven incorrect, as comments clarified that he was an imam from a mosque in Canada.
