Part 42

Sa‘id ibn al-‘As said to his son: “Do not joke with a noble, for he may dispise you, or if he is vile, he may be insolent towards you.”

Joking is permitted with two conditions:

Second: That one should not do it frequently, because excessive joking weakens one’s heart.

Abu al-Hasan al-Mawrudi said: “Excessive jesting distracts a person from reflecting on important matters, or taking precautions against misfortunes; for he who indulges in it, would lose his dignity and respect.”

Joking should be done with good intentions, in order to achieve a reward from Allah for it; like playing with one’s spouse with the intention of cheering her up, and being kind to her, as the Prophet used to do with ‘Aishah 2. Also playing with one’s companions and

' Recorded by al-Tirmidhi. ? Recorded by al-Bukhari and Muslim.

friends should be done with the intention of consolidating companionship. and. friendship.

13. Preserving one’s tongue from scorn and mockery

Allah 3% said: {O you believers! Do not ridicule others who may be better than yourselves; nor should any women ridicule other women who may be better than them)’.

Mockery is looking down upon somebody, making fun of and stating his/her shortcomings in order to ridicule him/her. This may be expressed in words, actions or signs. But why mock the believers when the Prophet 4% said: “Many a man who has unkempt hair and is dusty, may not even be looked at or noticed by people, yet if they should make an oath of allegiance to Allah, He 3 would fulfil their oath.”? He 4 also said: “Verily, Allah does not look at your images and your wealth, but He looks at your hearts and your deeds.”

The motive behind mockery is pride, as the Prophet # has described: “Pride is: disdaining the truth (out of self-conceit) and having contempt for the people”, and he also said: “He who has pride in his heart (as much as) the weight of a tiny seed shall not enter Paradise.”*

14. Preserving one’s tongue from disclosing secrets

There are two types: disclosing one’s personal secrets or those of others; both of which are reprehensible, while the first one remains less evil than the second.

First: Revealing one’s personal secrets is one of the reasons for one’s failure, and it may even lead to being disgraced by the person to whom the secrets are disclosed. ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib 2 said: “Your secret is your prisoner; if you disclose it, you become its prisoner.”

’ Surat al-Hujurat, verse 11.

? Recorded by al-Bukhari and Muslim 3 Recorded by Muslim.

* Recorded by Muslim and Ahmad.

> Recorded by Muslim and al-Tirmidhi.

Second: Revealing the secret of a Muslim is a serious and grave matter, because it is a trust laid upon you, and disclosing it is a breach of faith, for distrust is one of the signs of a hypocrite.

Abu Hurayrah 2 reported that the Prophet 3 said: “The signs of a hypocrite are three: whenever he speaks he tells a lie; and whenever he promises, he breaks his promise; and whenever he is entrusted, he betrays his trust (proves to be dishonest).”"

The Prophet 3% also said: “When a man tells (someone) something and then departs, it is a trust.””

It was narrated that Mu‘awiyah 2 confided a word to al-Waleed ibn ‘Utbah, so al-Waleed told his father: ‘O father, the Amir of the believers confided a word in me and I don’t think there is any harm in telling you about it.’ His father answered him: ‘Do not reveal it to me; for he who safeguards a secret, the choice would be to his advantage, but for he who reveals it, it would be against him.’ Al-Waleed said: ‘O father, does this come also between the father and his son?’. He said: ‘No by Allah, but I prefer that your tongue would not get accustomed to revealing secrets.’ Al-Waleed explained: ‘So I went to Mu‘awiyah and informed him, and he told me: ‘O Waleed, your father had saved you from becoming enslaved by a sin.”

The scholars have permitted revealing someone’s secret after his/her death, and take their evidence from the Hadith of ‘Aishah 2 who reported: “Once Fatima # came walking with a gait resembling the gait of the Prophet. The Prophet said: ‘Welcome, O my daughter!’ Then he made her sit on his right or left side, and then told her a secret upon which she started weeping. I asked her: ‘Why are you weeping?’ He again told her a secret and she started laughing. I said: ‘I never saw happiness so near to sadness as I saw today.’ I asked her what the Prophet had told her. She said: ‘I would never disclose the secret of Allah’s Messenger.’ When the Prophet died, I asked her about it. She replied: ‘The Prophet said: ‘Every year Gabriel used to revise the Qur’an with me once only, but this year he has done so twice. I think

' Recorded by al-Bukhari and Muslim. ? Recorded by Abu Dawud and al-Tirmidhi, on the authority of ‘Abdillah ibn Jabir

this portends my death, and you will be the first of my family to follow me.’ So I started weeping. Then he said: ‘Don’t you like to be the mistress of all the ladies of Paradise or the mistress of all the lady believers? So I laughed at that.’””!

15. Preserving one’s tongue from lying

The Prophet said: “Truthfulness leads to righteousness, and righteousness leads to Paradise. And a man keeps on telling the truth until he becomes a truthful person. Falsehood leads to al-fajur (i.e. wickedness, evil-doing), and al-fajur leads to the Hellfire, and so a man may keep on telling lies till he is written down before Allah, as a liar.””?

Abu Umamah # reported that the Prophet # said: “I guarantee a house in the middle of Paradise for a man who avoids lying, even if he were joking.”

Al-Hasan ibn ‘Ali said: “I have retained in my memory these words of Allah’s Messenger 3%: ‘Leave what causes you doubt, and turn to what does not causes you doubt. Truth is tranquillity, but falsehood is doubt.””*

‘Abdullah ibn ‘Amru ibn al-‘As 4% reported that the Prophet 38 said: “Whoever has the following four characteristics will be a pure hypocrite: if he speaks, he tells a lie; ifhe gives a promise, he breaks it; if he makes a covenant, he proves treacherous; and if he quarrels, he behaves in a very impudent, evil insulting manner. And whoever has one of these characteristics has one characteristic of a hypocrite, unless

he gives it up”.

' Recorded by al-Bukhari and Muslim.

? Recorded by al-Bukhari and Muslim.

> Recorded by Abu Dawud and al-Tirmidhi who categorised it as hasan.’ AlHafidh al-Mundiri said it was narrated by al-Bayhaqi with a sound chain.

* Recorded by al-Tirmidhi who categorised it as hasan sahih.’

> Recorded by al-Bukhari and Muslim.

Abu Hurayrah 2 reported that the Messenger of Allah said: “There are three persons with whom Allah would neither speak, nor would He absolve, on the Day of Resurrection; he would not look at them and there would be a grievous torment for them: an aged adulterer, a lying king and a proud destitute.’?

Some people tell lies to make others laugh, but when you tell them to give up lying, they would say: “I am simply joking.” The Prophet # has said about such people: “Woe to him who relates things, speaking falsely, to make people laugh thereby. Woe to him! Woe to him.”*

There are some people who lie about what they have seen in a dream, which is a grave offence. Wathila ibn al-Asqa‘ 2 reported that the Messenger of Allah 48 said: “Verily, one of the worst lies is to falsely claim to be the son of someone other than one's real father, or to claim to have had a dream one had not had, or to attribute to me what I have not said.”

Tbn ‘Abbas reported that the Prophet 4 said: “Whoever claims to have seen a dream which he did not see would be ordered to make a knot between two grains of barley, which he would not be able to do.”

The most evil liars who have the gravest sin are those who tell lies against Allah and His Messenger — in terms of interpreting the Qur’an and the Sunnah. Telling lies about Allah include making lawful what Allah 3@ regards as unlawful, or forbidding what Allah 3¢ has made lawful. He 4 said: (Do not say about what your lying tongues

? Recorded by Muslim.

3 Recorded by Abu Dawud, al-Tirmidhi, al-Nasa’i and al-Bayhaqi. * Recorded by al-Bukhari.

> Recorded by al-Bukhari.

describe: ‘This is halal and this haram,’ inventing lies against Allah. Those who invent lies against Allah are not successful)!. This Verse refers to those who give fatwa without any knowledge; you would find one of them giving a fatwa regarding a particular issue, yet when you ask him for the proof from the Qur’an or the Sunnah, he becomes perturbed and confused, and he would probably tell you: this is from the madhab’ of so and so; or this is the opinion of the jumhur’; or this is the opinion of some scholars. These expressions are only used as excuses when people have no clear proof.

Al-Shafi‘i said: “Knowledge is that which says: ‘narrated so and so’; and besides that is simply insinuations of the devil.”

Do not assume that this a call to disregard the schools founded by the scholars. They represent an astonishing Islamic heritage; but what is intended is to adopt a particular issue only when you have a proof from the Qur’an or the Sunnah, and this is the advice of the scholars themselves.