Archival - Saudi Cleric Muhammad Al-Munajid: Jailbreaking Your iPhone Is Not Forbidden by Islamic Law

In 2011, Saudi cleric Muhammad Al-Munajid responded to a question posed on a TV show, saying: "On the face of it, using jailbreak in order to enable a device to download a program, is not forbidden by the shari'a, but Allah knows best." The program aired on a tech show on Al-Majd TV on April 2, 2011.

Following are excerpts:

Interviewer: Is a Muslim, or anyone, allowed to use jailbreak on iPhones, or on any other device? This is the question that we will discuss today on our program, with our sheikh Muhammad Al-Munajid.

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Jailbreak is a program that modifies the operating system of a device, in order to remove the restrictions imposed by the company that developed the operating system. It makes it possible to download programs that are not endorsed by the manufacturing company.

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On the face of it, using jailbreak in order to enable a device to download a program is not forbidden by the shari'a but Allah knows best.

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On the face of it, jailbreaking is not prohibited, while cracking is.