Kamal El-Mekki – Honor and Reputation
AI: Summary ©
The history and reputation of Islam in the United States and Canada is discussed, including the dangerous consequences of shirking something besides Allah and the ways in which he has caused people to become afraid of others. The importance of protecting one's reputation and not being associated with a false statement is emphasized, as well as the origin of a woman named Surah who committed a false statement about her pregnant period. The use of slander and backbiting in Islam is also discussed, as it is a sign of good Islam and is used to protect people's honor. The importance of being clear and avoiding falsehood is emphasized, as well as the importance of avoiding falsehood in one's beliefs.
AI: Summary ©
Alhamdulilahi rabbil alameen, wassalatu wassalamu ala rasoolihi al
ameen, wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'een.
Amma ba't, our khutbah is about people's honor
and reputation.
And we've noticed, and it is known, that
there is a huge love of scandals in
Muslim communities.
And this is very apparent, especially when you
go online.
Whenever there is a scandal that breaks out,
there will be weeks of back and forth
between people.
Posts will get, or videos will get millions
of views.
People will be patient and listen to 5
hours of scandalous material.
But they cannot withstand half an hour of
a lecture or serious material.
Or someone will write an expose and he'll
be proud that he got 200,000 shares
or reads or views and perhaps he only
got 200,000 sins.
This khutbah is about the high place that
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given the
honor and the reputation of the believers.
And we're going to explain that through the
example of zina.
And zina, as you know, is a very
dangerous sin.
It is a sin that can lead, in
many cases, to either an issue of life
or death.
It affects the person committing it, emotionally and
physically.
It affects the parents of the person committing
the sin.
It affects the siblings.
It affects society.
It affects the spouse.
It affects the child of zina.
One study says that a child of zina
is 3 times more likely to end up
in prison.
That he is more likely to end up
with a lower level of education.
Studies show neighborhoods where there are a lot
of children born out of wedlock have a
higher crime rate.
And no exaggeration, when we talk about, we
refer to studies conducted in the US and
Canada about the effects of zina on society.
And no exaggeration, it takes an hour to
go through the effects of zina on society.
Just when you rush it, it takes 50
minutes.
So it is a dangerous sin.
And it is the third worst sin in
Islam.
Number one is shirk.
Worshipping something besides Allah or something along with
Allah.
Two is murder.
Three is zina.
So as much as it is good to
remove zina from society, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta
'ala made it impossible to prove zina in
court.
This is a sin you would imagine.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala wants to rid
society of this sin.
So you would think it would be easy
to prove that someone committed zina in court.
But Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala made the
conditions to prove zina legally in court impossible
to meet.
Shaykh al-Islam ibn Taymiyyah he writes that
since the time of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam until his time, there has never been
a case of zina that was proved through
the four witnesses.
Because the conditions of the four witnesses are
impossible to meet.
And we can say that from his time
until our time, it has never been proven
in court.
So why did Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
make it impossible to prove zina?
Conditions that can never be met.
And the scholar said, because as much as
zina is dangerous in the society, as much
as we need to get rid of it,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala made your reputation
greater than that.
So he made it impossible for anyone to
tarnish your honor and tarnish your reputation.
This is the place Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta
'ala has given the place or the reputation
and the honor of the believers.
Hypothetically, the scholar said, what if these impossible
conditions were met?
And four upstanding individuals who witnessed everything and
were sure about all the details and met
the impossible conditions, they can take it to
court.
Islamically, they are not encouraged to take it
to court.
Even if the conditions are met, you are
not encouraged to take it to court.
Because the default, al-asl, al-sitr, the
default in Islam is to conceal people's sins.
Not expose, not to bring to light.
The default is to hide people's sins and
faults.
One of the companions of the Prophet ﷺ,
his name was Ma'iz ibn Malik.
Ma'iz ibn Malik, he committed zina.
And he had his companion, Hazal, who kept
encouraging him to turn himself in to the
Prophet ﷺ until he turned himself in.
So Hazal convinced Malik to turn himself in.
So what does Hazal get?
Does he get a reward?
Does he get a commission?
Does he get a pat on the back?
He got this from the Prophet ﷺ.
And Nabi ﷺ qala lahu, Ya Hazal, bi'sa
ma sanaat.
Oh Hazal, what a horrible thing you've done.
Law satartahu bitorafi ridaik, lakana khayran lahu, lakana
khayran lak.
And Nabi ﷺ tells him, look at the
language, look at the description.
If you would have concealed him with the
edge of your garment, ya'ani he committed
zina and you covered him with the edge
of your garment, then he said it would
have been better, not for him, of course
it would have been better for him to
be concealed.
It would have been better for you to
conceal him.
So the default is that we hide sins.
We don't expose anyone's sins.
In the narration of al-Ghamidiyah, which is
a woman from Ghamid, so she became known
as the Ghamidi woman, al-Ghamidiyah.
When she came and she confessed to zina
because she was pregnant and all that, there
are many narrations of this incident.
There is not a single narration where the
Prophet ﷺ asked her about the man.
They had to have been a man, where
did she get pregnant from?
For sure there was a man.
But there is not a single narration where
the Prophet ﷺ asked about the man because
she chose to turn herself in and the
man didn't and so the default is his
sin is concealed.
No one is to even ask or investigate
about him.
In surah an-Nur, after Allah ﷻ defends
Aisha ﷺ from the false accusation made against
her, then Allah ﷻ says, يَعِظُكُمُ اللَّهُ أَن
تَعُودُوا لِمِثْلِهِ أَبَدًا إِن كُنتُمْ مُؤْمِنِينَ Allah ﷻ
says, يَعِظُكُمُ اللَّهُ أَن تَعُودُوا لِمِثْلِهِ أَبَدًا and
the Mufasireen said it means Allah ﷻ forbids
you or warns you.
Allah ﷻ forbids you from ever doing something
like this.
What's interesting is Allah ﷻ doesn't say Allah
ﷻ forbids you from returning to this story
or re-accusing Aisha or ever opening up
this book again.
No.
Allah ﷻ didn't say, يَعِظُكُمُ اللَّهُ أَن تَعُودُوا
لِمِثْلِهِ أَبَدًا but لِمِثْلِهِ.
So Allah ﷻ is saying Allah ﷻ forbids
you from doing something like this to anyone
ever again.
Not just the wife of the Prophet ﷺ,
to anybody, male or female.
Don't ever do this again.
And as a side note, in a Muslim
state, this applies even to non-Muslim women.
Their honor and their reputation is protected and
if anyone accuses a chaste woman, then he
will be punished also.
And also Allah ﷻ for the sisters put
the women's reputation at an even higher level
than that of the man.
And that's why the verses warning and punishing
people who accuse innocent individuals of committing zina
are all in the feminine sense, all talking
about the women.
To the point that the scholars said, does
this apply to the man?
And they said yes.
So then why is Allah ﷻ mentioning the
woman only?
Because Allah ﷻ will put her honor and
her reputation at a higher level than that
of the man.
On top of that, we are encouraged to
guard our own and safeguard our own reputation.
We see this in the Qur'an in
Surah Maryam when Jibreel comes in the form
of a human being and he gives Maryam
glad tidings of giving birth to one of
the five greatest prophets.
And miraculously she's going to conceive him and
yet her first concern wasn't her due date
or the baby shower.
Her first concern was, how am I going
to explain this to people?
So her first concern was her reputation.
Likewise in the Qur'an in Surah Al
-Shu'ara, Ibrahim ﷺ makes this dua, request
from Allah ﷻ.
He says, وَاجْعَلْ لِي لِسَانَ صُدْقٍ فِي الْآخِرِينَ
He's asking Allah ﷻ to in the later
generations to have a good mention amongst people.
He cared about his reputation even in future
generations that he's not going to encounter.
In fiqh when you're studying, the reasons and
the excuses to break your fast, you're traveling,
you're sick, you can break your fast.
And the scholars say, you're traveling and so
you go to another city and everyone is
fasting in Ramadan.
But you break your fast and you have
a perfect excuse in front of Allah ﷻ.
They tell you not to drink in front
of everyone.
Or you're sick, nobody knows that you're sick,
no one knows you're a traveler.
They'll just see a fasiq, a dissolute who's
just drinking during the day in Ramadan.
They said, don't.
So what if you do?
Allah knows your reputation.
You safeguard it.
You care about it.
Allah ﷻ put people's reputation on a very
high pedestal.
And He put measures so we don't freely
tarnish each other's reputations.
Yet so many people love slandering and smearing
and rumors and scandals.
And for those people, contemplate this verse.
Allah ﷻ says in Surah An-Nur, In
this verse, Allah ﷻ says, Indeed those who
love for al-fahisha, so al-fahisha typically
in the Qur'an almost always refers to
zina, illicit sexual relations.
For those who love to spread this.
So the scholars, mufassireen, one group said, this
verse is saying those who love to spread
the rumors and the news of these kinds
of scandals amongst the Muslim community, lahum azaabun
alimun, for them is a severe and painful
torment in this dunya and in the akhirah
and Allah knows and you do not know.
That's one tafsir.
The other tafsir said no.
It's not talking about those who spread it
and who talk about it and who inform
others about it.
The ayah doesn't say that.
The ayah is saying they just love that
it spreads.
So that means this person is standing by,
he's just witnessing it, he's not spreading the
information, he's not passing on videos, he's not
talking about it in gatherings, he's not taking
part at all.
But in his heart he loves that it
happened.
He hated the imam so he loves that
he's being destroyed.
He hated the speaker so he's so happy
in his heart that people are doing the
dirty work.
He's not doing any of it, he's just
standing and watching it.
So the ayah is threatening those who love
that it happens and they don't have any
part in it.
Brothers and sisters in Islam, part of the
wisdom of forbidding, slandering and backbiting and eavesdropping
is to protect people's honor.
Ask Allah for his forgiveness.
Indeed, those who ask for his forgiveness shall
prosper.
There are many very scary ahadith about slander
or speaking about people's honor.
But we'll look at a hadith that might
seem to be mild.
And this is the famous hadith in al
-Tirmidhi that many of us know.
And Nabi ﷺ said, مِنْ حُسْنِ إِسْلَامِ الْمَرْءِ
تَرْكُهُ مَا لَا يَعْنِيهُ From the practice of
one's good Islam or from a sign of
one having good Islam is that he leaves
that which does not concern him.
That he or she leaves that which doesn't
concern them.
The hadith doesn't sound that serious.
It doesn't directly mention slander and backbiting and
rumors and these things.
It doesn't mention that.
It says just stay away from things that
don't concern you.
But it does mention slander and lying and
backbiting and spreading rumors.
Because when do these things ever concern anyone?
One is the last time someone was spreading
a slander and it concerned them.
It doesn't concern them.
So the hadith is speaking in very general
terms.
It includes all these kinds of things.
It doesn't concern you.
Stay out of it.
And this is a sign of good Islam.
In example of one scary hadith, Nabi ﷺ
said, مَنْ قَالَ فِي مُؤْمِنٍ مَا لَيْسَ فِيهِ
Whoever says about a believer that which is
not in them.
Meaning it's an untruth.
You're accusing them of something that they didn't
do or a quality that's not in them.
أَسْكَنَهُ اللَّهُ رَضْغَةَ الْخَبَالِ أَسْكَنَهُ اللَّهُ رَضْغَةَ الْخَبَالِ
الرضغة هي الوحل الكثير والخبال الفاسد.
حَتَّى يَخْرُجَ مِمَّا قَالَ So the hadith is
saying, whoever says about a believer something, a
quality or an accusation, something they didn't do,
a quality that's not in them.
Allah ﷻ on the day of judgment will
put him in, basically he will get stuck
in this mud.
But it's not really mud.
Other scholars explain that رَضَغَةَ الْخَبَالِ is referring
to عُصَارَةَ أَهْلِ النَّارِ وَالْعِيَادُ بِاللَّهِ يعني the
liquids, may Allah protect us from that, the
liquids of the people in the hellfire, the
pus and all the other liquids, Allah will
get him stuck in that on the day
of judgment until what?
Until he comes out of, meaning he distances
himself from what he accused the believing person
of.
And how does he do that?
The scholars said, يُكَذِّبُ نَفْسَهُ أَوْ يَتُوبُ أَوْ
يَسْتَحْلِل يعني he says, I was a liar
when I said that about the individual.
Or he seeks the forgiveness of that individual,
or he repents.
And there's so many ahadith, but this should
be enough for us to stay out of
people's affairs, to stay out of people's business,
and to stay away from scandals, and to
stay away from rumors.
We ask Allah عز و جل to make
us of those who recognize the truth as
clear truth and follow the best of it.
And to make us of those who recognize
falsehood as clear falsehood and abstain from it.
اللهم أبرم لأمة الإسلام أمرا رشدا يعز فيه
أهل طاعتك ويهدى فيه أهل معصيتك ويؤمر فيه
بالمعروف وينهى فيه عن المنكر يا سميع الدعاء
وصلى اللهم وبارك على المبعوث رحمة للعالمين وعلى
آله وصحبه أجمعين وقوموا إلى صلاتكم ورحمكم الله
الله أكبر الله أكبر أشهد أن لا إله
إلا الله أشهد أن محمد رسول الله حي
على الصلاة حي على الفلاح قد قامت الصلاة
قد قامت الصلاة الله أكبر الله أكبر لا
إله إلا الله please
straighten your lines and fill all the gaps
do not leave gaps between you and the
person next to you that also applies to
sisters brothers in the back rows of the
room look to the ends of the line
in front of you make sure the line
is complete before you start a new line
basically it's not permissible to pray if there
is space in the line in front of
you so it's important for you to make
sure Allah Akbar
Ameen
Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen Ar-Rahman Ar-Raheem Maliki
Yawm Al-Deen Iyyaka Na'budu Wa Iyyaka
Nastaeen Ihdina As-Sirata Al-Mustaqeem Sirata Al
-Ladhina An'amta Alayhim Ghayri Al-Maghdoobi Alayhim
Wala Al-Dalliin Ameen
Qul Huwa Allahu Ahad Allahu As-Samad Lam
Yalid Wa Lam Yulad Wa Lam Yakun Lahu
Kufuwan Ahad Allahu Akbar Samia
Allahu Liman Hamidah