Lying, false testimony, false accusation

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah b e upon him) was asked, “Can a Muslim be a coward?” He
replied, “Yes.”

“Can a Muslim be miserly?”

“Yes.”

“Can a Muslim lie?”

“No.”

Imam Malik in Al-Muwatta

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, “A Muslim can have any kind of
characteristic except cheating and stealing.” (Ibn Abi Dunya)

The importance of learning about lying is to avoid it

There are three types of characteristics that makes someone a hypocrite/Munafiq as described in
hadith

1. if he speaks he lies

2. he cannot be trusted

3. breaks his promises

There is can be two further types:

1.Nifaq ‘Alami/Practical hypocrisy; this is when someone refuses to do something

2. Nifaq ‘Aqali/Rational hypocrisy; this is to know something and to refuse it

Lying is defined as purposely and intentionally not telling the truth

The worst lie types of lies (in order of sin) are:

1. Someone lies about Allah (Mighty and Majestic) when they something is halal/permissible and
haram/prohibited in the shariah/sacred law

2. Lying about the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) fabricating prophetic
narrations/hadith

3. False testimony

4.Lying about dreams: on the day of Judgement he will ordered to do the impossible

Only one constitutes as an Act of disbelief the others are major sins because sins do not cause
disbelief.

Excuses that make lying permissible:

1. To bring to parties or brothers together

2. During war

3. Sometimes a man can lie to his wife, if he knows that the truth can hurt her. For example
someone can say that they are looking for another job because he lost his job. It is permissible to lie
as long as it does not hurt someone.

Yes it’s better not to lie

Tawriah is to say that you have done something when the other person will understand something
else. This is only permissible sometimes not all the time.

How to remove lies from ourselves:

1. Keep a pen and paper handy – when you lie – write it down

2. At night review it and ask for forgiveness for every lie

3. Pray the forgiveness prayer (two units/Rakats) and cry. Then tear up the paper, do this for forty
days then see if you can go without lying for ten days. When you lie again repeat the process.
Backbiting/Ghiba and tale bearing/Namima

“Do not backbite each other, would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother?” (49:12)

“Woe betide every backbiter, derider.” (104:1)

Backbiting is defined as mentioning someone in a way that they would not like. You have to mention
their name or the person who you are talking about has to know who you are talking about; if they
do not know who you are talking about then it is not backbiting.

(Some of the scholars say if that person was behind you and heard what you had to say, would it
hurt him? If it does then it is backbiting.)

We should stay away from backbiting because there is a hadith/prophetic narration when the
Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) when he saw people cutting themselves with
cooper nails.

Other hadith/prophetic narration

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, “Do you know what backbiting is?”

They said: “Allah and His Messenger know best.”

He said: “It is to mention about your brother something that he would dislike having mentioned
about him.”

Someone asked, “O Messenger of Allah! How do you see it if what I said about him is true?”

He replied: “If what you said about him is true, then you have backbitten him. If what you said about
him is false, then you have slandered him.” [Sahîh Muslim (2589)]

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, “Whoever can guarantee to me what is
between his two lips and what is between his two legs, I can guarantee for him Paradise.” [Sahîh al-
Bukhârî (6474)]
Backbiting is a major sin in Islam, Haram/prohibited – it is punished for and cause punishment in the
grave

Some scholars say backbiting is worse than illegal fornication/Zina because if someone commits Zina
then it’s between them and Allah (mighty and majestic) but backbiting is between you and others

It is not permissible to listen to backbiting, the listener is like the speaker

What situations allow you to backbite?

1. When someone has harmed you and are complaining to someone about your problem but this is
with the condition that you are talking to someone who can stop it. i.e. Authorities.

2. To someone who can order that person to stop, scholar

3. To advise a student that to study with a scholar but this is only about what directly affects the
student

4. When you are asked about someone to warn them(to marry or do business with)

5. To call someone by a name that comes from a defect in him but he does not mind

6. About a bad person who sins openly

The Reasons for backbiting are many:

1. Pride

2. A group think they are better than another

3. To jest

4. Envy

5. Debase

ETC...

Etc...

If you hear someone backbiting then you must:

1. stop them or leave them

2. reject it in your heart – if you remain sat there

Part of repentance from backbiting is to pray for that person (this will remove the sickness from the
heart)

Tale bearing/Namima

Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah
be upon him) said, “A tale bearer will not enter paradise.” (Bukhari)

Tale bearing is to convey speech from one person to another with an intention of harming them

Imam Ghazali described tale bearing as, “To uncover something that someone dislikes.”

Imam Nawawi (may Allah show him mercy) described tale bearing as, “Transmitting speech from
someone to someone else to cause discord.”

The nature of backbiting is to uncover a secret that should remain a secret

Why do we avoid backbiting?

1. Not to have two tongues

2. Not to have to faces

3. To enter paradise

One of the reasons for tale bearing is for someone to pretend that they are your friend

If you hear tale bearing you should:

1. You should not believe it

2. Forbid it

3. Dislike it

4. You should not think badly about the person who he is transmitting from

(One of the righteous had a man come to him to tell him tales that someone he claimed to hear. The
Righteous man said, “Was Satan not able to find anyone else but you to tell me this?”)

To remove this from yourself you need to write down who and what you wrote about then repent
over it before sleeping. Then pray the prayer of repentance (two rakats/units). Then repeat this
everyday for forty days until you can mange ten days without it. If you go back to it then repeat this
procedure.

Arguing, swearing, insulting and ridiculing

“The most abhorrent person according to Allah is the most argumentative.” (The forgiver (Check
reference!!)

Argumentation is a sign of misguidance,

It is enough for an oppressor to argue all the time

Argumentation is defined as any speech that includes the criticism of someone and include the
following:

1. Context, sentence

2. Meaning

3. Intention

Arguing is only permissible:

1. For a scholar – sound knowledge, sources and know subject

2. Faithful and secure

3. Support the truth

Thing that it is not permissible to argue about:

1. The Ayat Mutashabihat/Unclear verses of the Quran

2. About the companions (may Allah be pleased with them) of the Prophet (peace and blessings of
Allah be upon him)

3. Divine decree and

4. Stars, Astrology and black magic

Conditions of argumentation are:

1. That you have to be sure about the subject,

2. Not raise your voice,

3. Let him finish,

4. Do not backbite or tales bear,

5. Do not insult or hurt him,

6 do not argue with your teacher

7. Do not wait for him to make an error.

8. do one to one and gently

Imam Ghazali (may Allah be pleased with him) said, “Most arguing is prohibited.”

Swearing, insulting and ridiculing are all Haram/prohibited; as your curse, swearing return to you

(swearing is something many overlook sometimes they not swear in one language but they may
swear in another language. It is bad for the person saying the swearword as it is for the listener. The
great character of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was that he never swore,
ever. So try to remember that next time you get an urge to let your anger go in words. Try to use
other words that do not insult or offend, it does take time to remove these from your system so
keep trying.
Ridiculing and insulting are prohibited

“To insult a Muslim is corruption. To wage war on him is disbelief.” (Muslim and Bukhari)

(I have lost count the many times that I have seen Muslims ridicule and insult each other.)

Cursing

“Whoever harms my friend, I declare war upon.” Muslim

“Cursing a Muslim is like killing him.” (Muslim and Bukhari)

One of the biggest sins is to cure someone’s parents

This prohibited by consensus:

1. It is an act of disbelief to curse a Prophet

2. It is a major sin to curse a companion

3. To insult a scholar is a major sin which can lead to disbelief

It is permissible to curse those who you know died upon disbelief, you cannot curse a particular
person but you can curse murders and likewise oppressors

The main reason for someone who curses is bad character