Lying

Lying

Brothers and sisters in Islam, today our khutbah is about lying. And lying is something that doesn't really need a definition, but simply it is speaking falsehood deliberately so that the words do not reflect actual facts. One study said that the average adult lies from two to three times per day. And the average child lies from three to five times per day. And the sad part is that we actually teach our children to lie to us, and we'll explain that in a little bit.

But lying itself, it is something that is unnatural and so abnormal that when someone tells a lie, his body reacts to the lie. And that's why we have the polygraph test, which measures small changes in breathing and heart rate and in sweating because of the person telling the lie. And sometimes the body betrays the liar. Someone will say in the affirmative, but their head subconsciously is shaking no, shaking side to side. Even the body betrays. And the words betray. So someone who is telling a lie will typically speak in the third person, and use a lot of third person pronouns, and he will not say "I" specifically. Always remove himself from the situation. They will avoid eye contact. So many things that make them uncomfortable.

Lying in the Qur'an: The Story of Yusuf

We see this in Surah Yusuf in the Qur'an, verses 16 and 17. We see that when the brothers of Yusuf threw him in the well, they came back to their father:

And so they came to their father at night, crying. The scholars say, why did they come at night in particular? And they explain a bunch of possible reasons. One, to avoid their faces being seen — so they come at night and it's dark and their father cannot see their face, because he might be able to tell. They know that the liar's face will give him away. Or two, because they're not good actors, and he will be able to tell that they're faking. Or some other scholars said they also didn't want to see his face — it's the guilt of telling the lie, they don't want to see his face as they're telling him the lie and they break his heart. And to avoid the general discomfort.

In the next verse:

They said, "Oh our father, we went off racing and left Yusuf by our goods, by our provision, our camp. So the wolf devoured him." And then look what they said: "And you're not going to believe us even if we were truthful." So their words gave them away. They said "even if we were truthful" — because they know they were not truthful.

While later on, when they lose their other brother Binyamin, and this time they're truthful, look at their wording now:

"And ask the village where we were staying, and the caravan that we came with. And we are truthful." The wording is completely different now.

Lying as a Sign of Hypocrisy

From the hadith about lying, narrated by Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him), that the Prophet ﷺ mentioned lying as one of three signs of a hypocrite — the famous hadith of Ayat al-Munafiq:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 33; Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 107)

"The signs of a hypocrite are three: if he speaks, he tells a lie; if he promises, he breaks the promise; and if you entrust him with something, he betrays that trust."

A quick clarification here. Sometimes someone breaks a promise or promises to meet someone somewhere, and when he doesn't make it, the other person tells him, "This is one of the signs of the hypocrite." But the scholars explain — the hypocrite, when he promises you, while he's promising and affirming the date and everything, internally he knows he's not coming. And there's a difference between that and your brother or your sister genuinely wanting to meet you and then being unable. So it doesn't necessarily mean it's one of the signs of the hypocrite.

But in another narration, in Sahih Muslim there is an addition:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 107)

"And even if he fasts and prays and believes that he's a Muslim" — it is still a sign of a hypocrite. And what is so bad about the hypocrites — Allah in the Qur'an in Surah An-Nisa mentions:

"The hypocrites are in the lowest levels of the hellfire." So these are the worst people, and the believer does not want to resemble them in any way.

The Path of Truthfulness and the Path of Lying

In another hadith in Sahih Bukhari and Muslim, the Prophet ﷺ said:

"Indeed truthfulness will guide to righteousness, and righteousness will guide to Al-Jannah, Paradise. And a man will continue to be truthful and seek out the truth until he is recorded with Allah as a Siddiq — a truthful one. And beware of lying, for indeed lying leads to lewdness, and lewdness leads to the hellfire. And the man will continue to lie and keep on telling lies until he is written with Allah as a liar."

And in the Qur'an, Allah showed us the high level of As-Siddiqeen — that they will be with the Prophets, and even before the martyrs, just because they are truthful. So someone will continue to say the truth until he is written and labeled with Allah as a Siddiq, someone at that high level.

So the question is: what if, because we tell lies here and there — at work, in this place and in that place — right now Allah, as He looks down upon us, we are labeled liars with Him? What if you are labeled a liar with Allah right now? When Allah looks down at you, He sees the label of liar. And that's how He has labeled you because you lie here and there and every so often. And how does that make you feel? What if someone called you a liar, or the whole community called you "the liar" and they would just welcome you: "Good morning, ya kadhdhab — any new lies you're coming up with?" How would you feel? Even people who are compulsive liars hate to be called liars. So forget other human beings calling you a liar — how would you feel if right now you are labeled and written with Allah as a liar because you lie once a day or a few times here and there? That is what is so disgusting about telling lies.

The Punishment of the Liar in the Hereafter

And there is severe punishment in the akhirah. In a long hadith in Sahih Bukhari, the Prophet ﷺ describes a journey into the heavens where the angels took him and he saw some punishment in the hellfire. He describes: "We went on and came to a man that was lying flat on his back with another man standing over him holding an iron hook." He put the hook in the man's mouth and then tore off that side of his face to the back of his neck. Then he put it in his nose and tore his face all the way to the back. Then he put it in his eye and tore it all the way to the back. Then he went to the other side and did the same thing, tore it in the same way. And then while he did this side, the first side was returned back to normal, and he went back and started tearing it again. And it continued like that.

So the Prophet ﷺ was shocked and asked, "SubhanAllah, who are these two people?" And the angels told him, "Move on, move on." And they kept moving on to different stations. Then at the end of the long hadith they explained to him what he saw. And particularly concerning the hook, they said:

"This is a man who leaves his home in the morning and tells a lie, and it reaches all over the world." And the scholars warn from this that this is exactly the world we live in right now. Beware of telling lies on the internet. Beware of lying on Facebook or on social media. Because in moments it spreads — it spreads to family around the world, it spreads to friends around the world, and then they pass it on and on. And we see all the time lies being spread, being passed around on social media, videos that are fake. Even lying for the sake of da'wah — many false and fabricated videos and stories trying to lie for the sake of Islam and for the sake of Allah — there is no such thing.

Lies Beget More Lies

The other thing is that lies are lonely. When you tell a lie, it needs companionship. So you have to tell another lie to accompany it. And then you might have to tell a third one to accompany the second. And in the end, it's such an entire web of lies that the person will lose track of them.

And in Islam, lies don't have colors. We don't have white lies, we don't have yellow lies, we don't have lying allowed on April Fools, and we don't allow lying to children either. They're all just lies. And it's not acceptable to lie to children.

Do Not Lie to Children

This is the companion Abdullah ibn Amir (may Allah be pleased with him). He said: "The Prophet ﷺ came to our house while I was a young boy and I was going out to play. So my mother called me:

She said, 'Oh Abdullah, come so I can give you something.' So the Prophet ﷺ, who was there in their house, asked her:

(Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 4991)

'And what is it that you want to give him?' So she said, 'Dates — I want to give him dates.' And the Prophet ﷺ told her, 'Be sure that you give him what you promised, because if not, it will be recorded as a lie against you.'" And many people always lie to children thinking it's okay — "Come, I'll have some candy for you," and there's nothing in their hand. That is recorded as a lie according to this hadith, according to the Prophet ﷺ.

How We Inadvertently Teach Our Children to Lie

We teach our children to lie, unfortunately. How do we do that? As we're raising them, when they tell us the truth, they get punished. You ask them, "Did you break such and such?" And they say yes, and you punish them. Then you ask them the same question another day, and they say no. So they lie and you do nothing to them. So the equation in their mind is: when I lie, I get out of trouble and nothing happens; when I tell the truth, I get in trouble.

Try this as a policy in your home. Tell your children: "Whatever you do, you will not get in trouble if you tell me the truth. But if you lie about the slightest thing, you're in deep trouble with me." And see how that will change how truthful they'll become.

Imam Amir al-Sha'bi (may Allah have mercy on him) used to say: "Beware of falsehood — إِيَّاكُمْ وَالْكَذِبَ — while you think it will help you, it is actually harmful."

And Malik ibn Dinar, the great scholar (may Allah have mercy on him), used to say:

"Truthfulness and lying battle each other in the person's heart until one of them gets rid of the other." Someone keeps lying until he becomes a liar all the time and there is no truth left in him — he has gotten rid of the truth.

Once again: what if Allah is looking at you right now, and because of constant lying here and there, you are labeled and written as a liar with Him? We ask Allah to make us of those who are truthful.

I ask Allah for His forgiveness. Indeed, those who ask for His forgiveness shall prosper.

The Worst Kinds of Lies

1. Lying About Allah

The worst lie undoubtedly would be a lie about Allah and His Messenger ﷺ. In Surah Yunus, Allah says:

"Say, those who forge a lie against Allah will never be successful."

In Surah Al-A'raf, Allah wants to tell us about the dangers of speaking about Him without knowledge. The ayah starts to mention sins that are gradually getting worse and worse:

"Say, my Lord has prohibited indecencies — those of them that are apparent and those that are hidden — and sin and rebellion without justice, and that you associate partners with Allah for which He has not sent down any authority, and that you say about Allah that which you do not know."

So what could possibly be worse than shirk? The sins are getting progressively worse and we know there is no sin worse than shirk — and yet Allah continues and places speaking about Him without knowledge at the top. The scholars said: why did Allah in this verse put speaking about Him without knowledge above shirk? Some scholars said, to show you the seriousness of speaking without knowledge. And others said, because speaking about Allah without knowledge has shirk in it — because now you're putting yourself in the place of the Legislator, making laws for yourself, and so it contains shirk within it. But either way, you see the seriousness of speaking about Allah without knowledge.

And very rarely do you find people who are afraid to give a fatwa. Unfortunately, do not do this brothers and sisters — you start with the preface: "I don't want to give a fatwa, but..." and then you give the fatwa. People always do that. They say "I don't want to give a fatwa" and then they give a full, full-fledged fatwa. So beware of that, because it's extremely, extremely serious.

2. Lying Against the Prophet ﷺ

As for telling lies against the Prophet ﷺ, in Sahih Bukhari and Muslim, the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 110; Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 4)

"Whoever deliberately lies against me, then let him take his seat in the hellfire."

And from that also — the Prophet ﷺ, if you notice, there are many hadith warning against lying about what you saw in your dream, your ru'ya, your righteous dream. Many hadith warning not to lie about what you saw in your dream, because your righteous dream is ultimately a message from Allah. And when you lie about that, you're forging a lie against Allah — you're saying, "Allah sent me this message," and He never sent you that message. That is also very serious.

When It Is Permissible to Lie

The Prophet ﷺ said:

"He is not a liar who rectifies between two people and says that which is good."

1. Reconciling Between People

Two people had some kind of dispute or fight. It is permissible, for the sake of getting them back together — which is the greater good — to go to one of them and tell him, "So-and-so feels really bad about what he did to you and he wants to apologize to you and he told me he feels very remorseful," and then go to the other one and say something similar. It is permissible in this case to lie for the sake of uniting people together.

2. In Times of War

Another case is in times of war. And many people will say, "Well, in times of war you can lie," and they start lying. But we are not at war. Lying to non-Muslims makes you a liar. Lying is a quality that a believer doesn't want to have. It's not about "I am truthful with Muslims and I lie to non-Muslims." It's a quality you don't want to have. If you're lying all the time, regardless of who it is, you'll still be labeled a liar. So you find people lying to non-Muslims, lying to companies, lying to entities, lying to governments — that's all part of lying. But in actual wartime it is permissible, and we have many examples from the seerah.

3. Between Husband and Wife

The third type is a man to his wife and a wife to her husband. Now, this is not a green light. Your wife says, "Where are you?" and you tell her a lie — this is not what is meant. This only applies in places where the intention is not to hurt feelings and to make the other party feel better. "Does this dress make me look big?" "No." "Do you like my mother?" "I love her." "Am I a good cook?" "Yes." "Am I the most handsome man in Houston?" "Of course." Here, you don't have to be brutally truthful and hurt someone's feelings. But it does not mean it is a green light for any lie.

4. Jokes

If someone is telling a joke, it is not a lie. If I tell you in advance, "Here's a joke," then I have already told you it is an untruth and you will not think that I'm lying to you. But if someone tells you a joke as if it's a true story, it will be recorded as a lie against them.

5. To Protect Someone from Harm or Injustice

This doesn't mean someone who's breaking the law, but it means to protect someone from harm or from injustice. During the time of Imam Ahmad, one of the students who used to attend his halaqah was wanted — they wanted to arrest him and torture him. His name was al-Marwazi. The guards came into the halaqah of Imam Ahmad and they didn't know what al-Marwazi looked like. They said, "Al-Marwazi huna?" — "Is he here?" So Imam Ahmad said, "Al-Marwazi laysa huna — al-Marwazi is not here," and he pointed to his hand, meaning: he is not in my hand. That is a kind of tawriyah — saying something truthful but not what the questioner is intending. So the guards left, and in that way he protected the student.

Du'a

May Allah make us from those who are truthful and those who hear the truth as clear truth and follow the best of it.