The ruling on gathering relatives in a single WhatsApp group
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
Now, the second question, Shaykh. If I have a group on WhatsApp and I gather, for example, a group of my closest relatives, including their parents and their children, whether boys or girls, so I bring everyone together, does this involve fitnah (trial, discord or temptation), or is it not permissible for me to gather, for example, the sons of one brother and the daughters of another brother? Is there fitnah in this if there is a group that everyone can see, in terms of the conversation? And all our conversation is by phone.
The Shaykh:
I did not understand the question, my brother. Repeat the question.
The questioner:
I say, may you live long, we have a group on our phones on WhatsApp. The WhatsApp program gathers relatives, whether boys or girls, and brings them all together. Does this group involve fitnah, especially if it gathers, for example, a man’s daughter with another man’s son, for example, with her cousin, in one group, and gathers all their parents? Is there anything wrong with this?
The presenter:
The voice cut out.
The questioner:
Or rather, the boys should be on their own.
The Shaykh:
If there were pictures that they look at, then that is not permissible. It is not permissible to look at the pictures, yes.
Now, the second question, Shaykh. If I have a group on WhatsApp and I gather, for example, a group of my closest relatives, including their parents and their children, whether boys or girls, so I bring everyone together, does this involve fitnah (trial, discord or temptation), or is it not permissible for me to gather, for example, the sons of one brother and the daughters of another brother? Is there fitnah in this if there is a group that everyone can see, in terms of the conversation? And all our conversation is by phone.
The Shaykh:
I did not understand the question, my brother. Repeat the question.
The questioner:
I say, may you live long, we have a group on our phones on WhatsApp. The WhatsApp program gathers relatives, whether boys or girls, and brings them all together. Does this group involve fitnah, especially if it gathers, for example, a man’s daughter with another man’s son, for example, with her cousin, in one group, and gathers all their parents? Is there anything wrong with this?
The presenter:
The voice cut out.
The questioner:
Or rather, the boys should be on their own.
The Shaykh:
If there were pictures that they look at, then that is not permissible. It is not permissible to look at the pictures, yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، برنامج (فتاوى) (047) لمعالي الشيخ صالح الفوزان بتاريخ [1435-03-14] - كبار العلماء — youtube.com (39:14)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.