Rafiq ibn Jubair
A bug has recently been discovered in the iPhone’s iOS software which allows people to listen in on other iPhone users through FaceTime even if they don’t accept the call.
MacRumors showed a demo of the bug on their YouTube channel and recommended that iPhone users should switch off FaceTime until Apple fixes the bug:
This has called into question Apple’s commitment to privacy with people asking how they have allowed such a bug to occur. People have raised concerns about how FaceTime can be misused, such as employer spying on their employees or spouses spying on each other. The servers for the Group FaceTime feature has now been temporarily disabled by Apple.
This got me thinking. People are concerned about privacy as they don’t want their private affairs to be known. They may be doing things they don’t want others to know which is why they need assurances from tech companies that their data is kept secure.
This got me thinking about Taqwa (having consciousness of Allah). Our relationship with our Creator, Allah is that in which there is no privacy. We cannot hide anything from Him. He is the All-Hearing and the All-Seeing. And it’s not just our physical actions, He knows what is in our minds and hearts.
Imagine there was a iPhone pointed at us constantly with someone watching and listening through FaceTime on the other end. How would we behave? Would we do anything we don’t want others to see? Of course not.
In the same way, we should try to develop a level of consciousness of Allah (taqwa) where we know that Allah is watching us at all times and refrain from doing things which we are not supposed to do so we do not displease the One who created us and gave us everything.
Before the advent of phones and video calling, if you told someone it would be possible to see and talk with someone who is thousands of miles away in real time, they might have called you crazy. Now, it is an everyday thing.
Similarly, a sceptical person may have found it difficult to believe that there is a God who Hears and Sees everything but developments in technology is making things easier to understand and believe.
