Islamic lessons

Allah ^azza wajalla revealed an explicit verse whose meaning is: {O you who believe!Fear Allah, and be with the truthful}1Brothers in faith! Allah subhanahoo ta^aalaa ordered us to do good and avoid evil.And so did His noble Messenger: our Lord sent him to teach people goodness, to callthem to adopt noble and good manners, as he-^alayhissalaatu wassalaam-said in ahadeeth whose meaning is [I was sent to the people to reveal and exhibit allof the good manners and high ethics]2Among the great traits of character Allah ordered us to adopt and the Messenger ofAllah-salla-llaahu ^alayhi wasallam-encouraged us to make ours, istruthfulness; amongthe most repugnant characteristics islying.Imam Muslim reported in hisSaheeh, from ^Abdullah ibn Mas^ood-radiya-llaahu^anhu-that the Messenger of Allah-salla-llaahu ^alayhi wasallam-said what means, [Youmust be truthful for truthfulness leads to sincerity and sincerity leads toParadise and the the slave keeps telling the truth and seeking to betruthful until Allah has him recorded as a truthful person, but beware oflying for lies lead to corruption and corruption leads to the Fire and theslave keeps telling lies and seeking to lie until Allah has him recorded as aliar.]Brothers in faith, themeaning of thishadeeth is that truthfulness leads to pious deedswithout reproof and it will take us to Paradise whereas lying leads to corrupt deeds,which is an inclination that takes away from uprightness, an indulgence in sins thatdrags to the Fire.Thehadeeth contains an encouragement to seek to be truthfulwhich is to intend and care to be so; it warns us against lying and being tolerant of it;any person who tolerates lying will lie a lot and will be known as such. When theProphet-salla-llaahu^alayhi wasallam-said what means: [until Allah has himrecorded as a truthful person] and [until Allah has him recorded as a liar],it means that he will be judged as such, the person will deserve to be described as oneof those who reach the rank of asiddeeq, of a truthful believer entitled to theirrewards, or he will be described as one of those who went down to the level of akadhdhaab, of an unrepentant liar, subjected to their punishment. What is meant isthat it will be publicised to creatures, either by him becoming famous for his share ofboth characteristics in the High Assembly, i.e. among angels; or people will becomeaware of it and will speak of it and he will be either accepted or hated. When lyingturns into a habit it becomes hard to stopit and this is when a person is written downas a liar. We ask Allah ta^aalaa to make us part of the truthful.Bothers in faith! Lying, which we want to speak of briefly, is to say knowingly what iscontrary to the truth; some are enormous sins while others are small sins or evenkufr, disbelief; may Allah ta^aalaa protect us from it. If a lie does not cause any harmto a Muslim it is a small sin, but beware my Muslim brother of minimising a smallsin, for mountains are made of small stones!1Sura atTawbah 9:1192Reported by alBayhaqiyy inasSunan alKubraa

Khutbah: Warning against lying and the first of April customAICP UK2'Ahmad and atTabaraniyy reported that the Prophet-salla-llaahu ^alayhi wasallam-saidwhat means: [Beware of unheeded sins-muhaqqaraat adhdhunoob-forthe parable of unheeded sins is that of a people who reach the centre of avalley then someone brings a twig and another one another twig untilthey bring enough twigs to bake their bread.When someone isoverwhelmed by unheeded sins, they will cause him to perish] What ismeant by “unheeded”,muhaqqaraat, are the small acts of disobedience and theprophetichadeeth shows that minor sins will cause a person to indulge into them andto commit a great number of them until he ends up committing enormous sins. Manyan unheeded sin is overlooked by the one who commits it until it leads him to a bigsin, or even to kufr, justas fever leads to death. May Allah spare us all evils!If lying causes harm to a Muslim it is an enormous sin, may Allah ta^aalaa protect us!One abhorrent sin is lying about the Messenger of Allah-salla-llaahu ^alayhi wasallam.The Prophet-^alayhissalaatu wassalaam-said what means [Whoever lies about meon purpose, let him take his place in Hell], as reported by the two sheikhs3. Ifthis lie is a claim that something recognised asharaam by unanimity is actuallyhalaal, when it is also necessarily known to be unlawful, as in the case of fornication,sodomy, murder, stealing, robbing; but also if it is a claim that something recognisedas obviouslyhalaal by unanimity is actuallyharaam, as in the case of trading andmarrying, it is kufr in either case. May Allah ta^aalaa protect us from such a thing.Such is the case when people make something up, declaring, “Allah ta^aalaa said, 'Ifyou see a blind man, turn him upside down on his face, for you are not more noblethan his Lord.'” The individual who says these words claims that idiotic sentence tobe part of the Qur'an, which is an act of kufr, of disbelief; may Allah protect us fromsuch a thing.Brothers in faith! Let it be known that lying isharaam, whether a person does so as ajoke or seriously,whether he meant to make people laugh or not. The Prophet-^alayhissalaatu wassalaam-said what means [Damn whoever speaks to peopleand then lies to make them laugh! Damn him! Damn him!]. That is to say,this is an enormous sin and the person guilty ofit deserves a severe torment in theHereafter.Among things we ought to warn people against, brothers in faith, is what people call“the pranks of April fools' day”, for lying isharaam on April 1stas it is the rest of thetime. This often causes Muslimsto be scared, like the telling someone, “your son hasdied” or “this or that happened to your wife”, frightening and scaring him, may Allahgrant us His protection! To scare Muslims isharaam! It is narrated in theMusnadof'Ahmad that the Messenger of Allah-salla-llaahu ^alayhi wasallam-said what means, [Itis not allowed for a Muslim to scare another Muslim]. He said so-^alayhissalaam-when some people scared one of his Companions as a joke by taking an arrowof his while he was asleep.لاكِذُبفِيِجٍّداولافِياهْزٍّلُحاْلاياْصلُ3I.e. AlBukhariyy and Muslim.

Khutbah: Warning against lying and the first of April customAICP UK3When it comes to lying, it is as some Companions said, “it is neither good whenserious, nor in jest” that is to day, as a joke. If the purpose is to amuse thosepresent, even if it causes no harm to people, it isharaam. The Messenger of Allah-salla-llaahu ^alayhi wasallam-said what means,[I joke but I only tell the truth]sothe Messenger of Allah-salla-llaahu ^alayhi wasallam-informed us in hishadeeth thatsometimes he spoke humorously for some wise reason, but he only said what wastrue, that is to say, the Prophet-salla-llaahu ^alayhi wasallam-did not lie. We warn youagainst sentences used by some people who say, “Lies are the salt of men” and“Shame on a person who speaks the truth”, for these contradictthe religion andnullify the speaker's Islam because the first statement asserts that what Muslimsknow by the standards of their religion to be bad, is actually good and that whatMuslims know by the standards of their religion to be good, is actually bad. Bothstatements belie religion, may Allah ta^aalaa protect us!Beware of lying then, brothers in faith! Warn against it because when it takes hold ofa person, it becomes an evil habit that shows the evil nature of the person indulginginto it. Fear Allah and be among the truthful. Allaahumma protect us from lies andthe rest ofharaam acts, O most merciful of those who show mercy!Yaa 'arhamarraahimeen!This is it and I ask for forgiveness on your behalf and mine.