بسم الله الرحمان الرحيم
In the Name of Allah,
the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
LYING (الكذب)
(Nawawi:) Primary text from the Qur'an and Sunnah that it is
haraam (unlawful) to lie are many, it being among the ugliest
sins and most disgusting faults. And the Ijma (scholarly con-
sensus of the Community (Ummah) has also made it haraam.
Our only concern here being to explain the exceptions to what
is considered lying and apprise of the details.
Permissible Lying
Umm Kulthum رضى الله عنها narrates that Rasoolullah صلى الله عليه وسلم
said, ''He who settles disagreements between people to bring
about good or says something commendable is not a liar.''
This much is related by both Bukhari and Muslim, with Muslim's
version recording that Umm Kulthum رضى الله عنها added,
''I did not hear him permit untruth in anything people say, except
for three things : war, settling disagreements, and a man talking
with his wife or she with him ( in smoothing over differences).''
This is a explicit statement that lying is something permissible
for a given interest, scholars having established criteria defining
what types of it are halal (lawful).
The best analysis of it I have seen is by Imam Ghazali, who says:
Speaking is a means to achieve objectives. If,
1) A praiseworthy aim is attainable through both telling the
truth and lying, it is haraam to accomplish through lying
because there is no need for it.
2) When it is possible to achieve such an aim by lying but not
by telling the truth, it is permissible to lie if attaining the goal is
permissible (i.e. when the purpose of lying is to avoid someone
who is preventing one from doing something permissible), and
obligatory to lie if the goal is obligatory.
3) When, for example, one is concealing a Muslim from an
oppressor who asks where he is, it is obligatory to lie about his
being hidden.
4) Or when a person deposits an article with one for safekeeping
and an oppressor wanting to appropriate it inquires about it, it is
obligatory to lie about having concealed it, for if one informs him
about the article and he then siezes it, one is financially liable
(to the owner) to cover the article's cost.
Whether the purpose is war, setting a disagreement, or gaining the
sympathy of a victim legally entitled to retaliate against one so that
he will forbear to do so; it is not haraam to lie when any of these
aims can only be attained through lying. But it is religiously more
precautionary in all such cases to employ words that give a mis-
leading impression, meaning to intend by one's words something
that is literally true, in respect to which one is not lying, while the
outward purport of the words deceives the hearer.
Strictness is to forgo lying in every case where it is not
legally obligatory.
The position of Ahl al-Sunnah is that lying means to inform
another that something is otherwise than it really is, whether
intentionally or out of ignorance. One is not blameworthy if
ignorant of it, but only if one lies intentionally, the evidence
for which is that the Rasoolullah صلى الله عليه وسلم made
intentionality a condition when he said,
''Whoever lies about me intentionally shall take a place
for himself in hell.''
InshaAllah to be continued....
In the Name of Allah,
the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
LYING (الكذب)
(Nawawi:) Primary text from the Qur'an and Sunnah that it is
haraam (unlawful) to lie are many, it being among the ugliest
sins and most disgusting faults. And the Ijma (scholarly con-
sensus of the Community (Ummah) has also made it haraam.
Our only concern here being to explain the exceptions to what
is considered lying and apprise of the details.
Permissible Lying
Umm Kulthum رضى الله عنها narrates that Rasoolullah صلى الله عليه وسلم
said, ''He who settles disagreements between people to bring
about good or says something commendable is not a liar.''
This much is related by both Bukhari and Muslim, with Muslim's
version recording that Umm Kulthum رضى الله عنها added,
''I did not hear him permit untruth in anything people say, except
for three things : war, settling disagreements, and a man talking
with his wife or she with him ( in smoothing over differences).''
This is a explicit statement that lying is something permissible
for a given interest, scholars having established criteria defining
what types of it are halal (lawful).
The best analysis of it I have seen is by Imam Ghazali, who says:
Speaking is a means to achieve objectives. If,
1) A praiseworthy aim is attainable through both telling the
truth and lying, it is haraam to accomplish through lying
because there is no need for it.
2) When it is possible to achieve such an aim by lying but not
by telling the truth, it is permissible to lie if attaining the goal is
permissible (i.e. when the purpose of lying is to avoid someone
who is preventing one from doing something permissible), and
obligatory to lie if the goal is obligatory.
3) When, for example, one is concealing a Muslim from an
oppressor who asks where he is, it is obligatory to lie about his
being hidden.
4) Or when a person deposits an article with one for safekeeping
and an oppressor wanting to appropriate it inquires about it, it is
obligatory to lie about having concealed it, for if one informs him
about the article and he then siezes it, one is financially liable
(to the owner) to cover the article's cost.
Whether the purpose is war, setting a disagreement, or gaining the
sympathy of a victim legally entitled to retaliate against one so that
he will forbear to do so; it is not haraam to lie when any of these
aims can only be attained through lying. But it is religiously more
precautionary in all such cases to employ words that give a mis-
leading impression, meaning to intend by one's words something
that is literally true, in respect to which one is not lying, while the
outward purport of the words deceives the hearer.
Strictness is to forgo lying in every case where it is not
legally obligatory.
The position of Ahl al-Sunnah is that lying means to inform
another that something is otherwise than it really is, whether
intentionally or out of ignorance. One is not blameworthy if
ignorant of it, but only if one lies intentionally, the evidence
for which is that the Rasoolullah صلى الله عليه وسلم made
intentionality a condition when he said,
''Whoever lies about me intentionally shall take a place
for himself in hell.''
InshaAllah to be continued....
Comments
Post a Comment