Website closes down for prayer

JEDDAH: While the debate on stopping all commercial activity during prayer times continues, one local online newspaper in Hail province has decided to advocate for this pause by taking down its site for 20 minutes, five times a day.
If visitors to Aen Hail (“Hail’s Eye” ) visit the site during prayers, they be met with a message “Closed for Prayer” in Arabic along with a countdown to the end of the prayer break at the bottom of the page.
The site shutdown, which was unveiled this month, is automated and linked to local prayer times, according to the site’s online editor, Majid Al-Mismar.
“The page is built with integration of a software that replaces the index page with another,” he said. “We believe that prayers come first. The electronic newspaper is off during Hail prayer times and is back on after the prayer is done.” Many online commentators to the website have praised the decision, expressing their support of a similar nationwide system.
Professor at Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University’s High Judiciary Institute and member of International Islamic Fiqh Academy, Mohammed Al-Nojaimi, called the newspaper’s decision “noble.”
“Closing a Saudi website for half-an-hour during obligatory prayers is a noble Islamic act,” he said. “It’s free from any search for fame or unacceptable rigidness. It contributes to reviving the habit of individuals praying on time.”
Others called the measure superficial. “You are focusing on appearances and presentation rather than the original principles of the religion,” said one of the commentators at the site. “What if the person wishing to surf the page is a non-Muslim?” Al-Watan newspaper columnist Amal Zahid wrote in an editorial piece published on Friday that putting a website on hold during prayer does little to encourage people to pray. “As if we haven’t already accumulated issues and problems to deal with,” he said in his column.
“Praying is a sacred act of worship that connects human beings to God throughout the day… Encouraging people to pray on time isn’t going to be achieved by closing websites.”
An online commenter to the opinion piece who called himself Mohammed Al-Saggaf called the measure an act of “stupidity” and said posting local prayer times was sufficient. “All those who are familiar with the website will know when to go for prayer,” he wrote.
“That does the job. Closing down the page is an act of backwardness and stupidity. Just like closing gas stations, pharmacies, and stopping service at airport immigration; it’s a disruption of interest with no positive benefit.”