Mufti Menk – Do you really know them

			Assalamu alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. My brothers and sisters, it's been a while since we've
been live with beautiful reminders. And this morning, I have a really, really important reminder for
every one of us. Normally, we say, Yeah, I know the brother or I know the sister. And you know, we
actually bear witness for them or against them. And we say we know them. So Subhanallah today, I
want to discuss this issue. Do you really know them? Do you really know him or her talking of anyone
whom you are perhaps bearing witness for or against people say I know the person. It's very
dangerous. It's very, very delicate, it's actually an extremely serious matter to say, I know the
		

			person and you don't really know them. So do you really know them? That is a question you need to
ask yourself. So it is reported that a man came to Omaha Baba, the Allahu anhu to bear witness about
someone. So the prophets of Salaam or about something. So I'm going to be the one who says to the
man, that you know, I don't know you, but can you come with anyone who knows you? So a person came
up from the people? I said, Yeah, I know him. So he said, You know him for what? He says no, he's
upright. He's okay. He's good. He says, have you? Have you been his neighbor? Meaning Have you lived
with him? That you've seen his 24? Seven, his day and his night? He said, No. So have you done
		

			business with him that you've known how he deals, you know, long term? He says no. He says, Well,
have you traveled with him? He says no, he says, well, then you don't know him. Because you actually
think you know him, but you don't. So you might actually you might actually have met the person but
you don't know them enough to be able to bear witness for them, or against them. That's an extremely
important message for all of us. Because sometimes we talk bad about a person without knowing them
thinking that they are bad. And sometimes there is no sign that they are bad, no sign at all. And
sometimes that sign or whatever you might have is actually from people who are totally anonymous,
		

			from people who are not even prepared to let their identity be known, let alone bearing witness
against someone. So we the masses get duped into believing something totally anonymous about someone
else in a way that the person who's come with the negativity doesn't even have the courage to
actually present themselves. And they want us to believe something really negative about a person.
If it was positive, anonymously positive, it's okay, it's fine, we can let it pass because it
doesn't destroy the dignity of a believer. And the dignity of an individual is actually sacred. It
is so sacred that the prophets of Salaam has described it as being more important than the Kaaba
		

			itself. May Allah subhanho wa Taala grant us protection, actually one of the narrations there is
mentioned made of the honor of a Muslim, the honor of another of a person actually,
		

			it is so sacred because obviously you will be destroying the person you'll be destroying their life,
you'll be having people hate them, dislike them for no reason. So be careful. So if you have a good
word to say, Alhamdulillah.
		

			If you have a bad word to say, make sure number one, you are not coming across anonymously, you're
not just creating a fitna, you you come across with your name proper who you are, you're prepared to
actually be a witness for the sake of Allah. If you're not prepared to do that, then stay away, stay
out of things. Secondly,
		

			if you have some very bad information that you have at hand, about someone, and you know that that
information is such that, if I don't release it, and if I don't stand up with it, then it will cause
damage to the EU. And I better let the people know, for example, if a person has a very warped
ideology, and is preparing some bad actions may be to how hurt people harm people, or even perhaps
sometimes, who knows, maybe even kill people starve a lot. And Allah protect us. If you have that
type of information. And if you know that that is factual, it is your duty, your duty to let those
in authority know what's going on, so that you can save the rest of us and the rest of humanity.
		

			Now, if you think No, I'm not going to say anything negative, I'm going to keep quiet, you know,
perhaps and perhaps you may be guilty of actually not having, as you know, saved people from hurt
from harm and even from loss of life. That's something important. So if you have some information
about someone that would affect others, directly.
		

			It's your duty to let those in authority those who can do something about it, have that piece of
information, and you need to come out and bear witness. But my brothers and sisters, for us to say I
know this person and we bear witness for them.
		

			For them, is actually dangerous. What this means is they have a dispute with someone or they're
trying to perhaps,
		

			you know, there is some something negative that's going on. And you say, No, I actually bear witness
for this person when you don't know them at all.
		

			So it's it's important that we understand the rules and regulations, you not only know a person,
when you've dealt with them, when you've traveled with them, when you've dealt with them, when
you've traveled with them when you've done business with them. Meaning when I say dealt with, you've
lived with them, right? So the first one is you've lived with them, either as a neighbor or within
the house. Secondly, you've done business with them or traveled with them. These are the three very
important factors, there are more factors as well. you've interacted with a person day in day out
and you know them, and you know, everything, then you actually know the person. But be careful. Now
		

			I go back to mentioning that which is negative. A lot of people today tend to just have nothing
better to do they just want to say negatives without realizing Who are they talking about? What are
they saying? If they're saying something that is bad or incorrect or
		

			something that is incorrect, unsubstantiated and uncalled for? In that case, my brothers and
sisters, you know what? Don't forget, you pay a price for what you did you pay a price. You know, I
for one, I'm really not affected by people who have negatives about me. And I don't mind I just, I'm
just concerned at the fact that people don't know you. Sometimes they don't know the sacrifices you
make for the sake of Allah. Sometimes people benefit from you so much in any small thing that comes
up negative, they quickly jump, you know, jump onto the negative bandwagon without even thinking.
But I've only benefited from this guy. He's never asked me for a penny, he's actually, you know,
		

			worked tirelessly to to serve the oma.
		

			It's okay, it's fine. I mean, we will still work tirelessly to continue serving the oma
respectfully, with dignity and integrity. But at the same time, if you have the disease, that
disease is not going to bother me, it's actually going to come back to haunt you at some stage. When
you struggle with your, with your family, with your health, with your business with so many other
things. Don't blame anyone but yourself. A lot of the times it's to do with the actions of your own
self, your mouth, your hands, what you've typed, what you forwarded what you've said, what you've
actually done, all that type of mischief, you pay a price for it, a lot of us are suffering so
		

			badly. Because we love gossip, we love slander, we love to forward tails that have absolutely no
base is if something has a base, and it definitely affects the oma, it's up to you to get up. And to
make sure that you have borne witness for the sake of Allah subhanho wa Taala. Now I want to end off
by saying my brothers and sisters,
		

			you know, at times shadeland comes to us indeed, and shadeland makes us say things and do things
sometimes against one another.
		

			My brothers and sisters Be very, very careful. Be very careful information coming to you how you
process it, how you look at it, how quickly you jump onto the bandwagon, you know, when the evil
happened at the time of a shadow, the alarm and
		

			the Quran speaks about how people were divided into three groups or let it happen in order to watch
what people do how each one processes that news and information. So some of them processed it
immediately by saying this is a lie. The others process did by saying, Well, you know what, if we
can't do this, they can't do this either. And the some of them fell into the tail, and they started
spreading it. And they were those who had created the fabrication unless you know what, you will
definitely have a fair share of the punishment, your proportion of the punishment equivalent to your
involvement in spreading all of this filth. So Subhanallah I sit and I'm actually, you know,
		

			saddened by the fact that some people can create something they can fabricates certain things in a
way SubhanAllah. That looks so real. And this is why the prophet SAW Selim says there will come a
time when the truth will be considered false and the false would would be considered true. I think
we've gotten there. There are applications you can have on your phone that can create totally non
existent chats between people. It's just an application. If you're ready to pay a bit of money, you
can have quite a good app to create a discussion between two people that never happened. And
secondly, there are certain people who have dedicated their lives to sit and expose others That's
		

			it, expose what something that's got nothing to do with them, and sometimes talk a whole load of
nonsense about people
		

			I say this because of late, there have been a lot of these pages that have come about where their
only job is to expose those who are doing hard work for the deen serving Allah subhanho wa Taala
free of charge for a long, long time, so that they create mistrust in the hearts of the of the
Muslim masses, so that their their left was no one to leave them with no one to look up to. Not
everyone is void of morals and values. You don't have those morals and values it doesn't mean that
we don't have them. If you if you are not filled with integrity and dignity, it does not mean we are
not filled with dignity and integrity. Sometimes out of politeness, you know you find people
		

			so handle out of their politeness being good to everyone. Sometimes that goodness is abused my
brothers and sisters remember this. I I've been very very busy throughout the month of Ramadan
throughout lead. Up to this day I'm actually traveling now I'm traveling back by the will of Allah
subhanho wa Taala but I've been out and I've been away from family dedicatedly trying to put a smile
on the faces of people reaching out to them helping them. Sometimes what you get in return from the
people is nothing but hate. I tell you, it's fine. That's okay. That's really really fine. We didn't
do it for you anyway, we did it for Allah. He knows and that's what matters. salaam aleikum wa
		

			rahmatullah.