Mufti Menk – The Crime of Not Verifying Info
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the actions of Islam, including accusations of worship and evidence verification, the importance of finding out who is responsible for actions, and the need for forgiveness and proper behavior. They stress the importance of avoiding mistakes and blaming oneself for them, and warn of potential harm to society if one refuses to comply. The segment also touches on the history of the criminal world, including the use of bathroom, backbiting, and the negative impact of backbiting on one's appearance. The speakers stress the importance of verifying one's identity and avoiding double-study, and stress the need for individuals to verify their identities and investigate.
AI: Summary ©
As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
Bismillah walhamdulillahi wassalatu wassalamu ala rasulullahi wa ala
alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in.
My beloved brothers and sisters, verification, authentication, investigation,
these are acts of worship in Islam.
In fact, they are great acts of worship.
Whenever you hear something, whenever you see something,
whenever you are told something, whenever you come
across something, Allah Almighty wants you to verify,
to authenticate and to investigate.
If someone comes to you with a piece
of news, firstly, is it related to you
or connected to you?
If the answer is no, throw it out.
Secondly, if it is connected to you, verify,
authenticate and investigate.
Why?
Because the opposite of it, you become sinful.
If you have not authenticated, you did not
verify, you did not try to investigate something.
Someone came to you with a piece of
news, كفى بالمرء كذباً أن يحدث بكل ما
سمع.
The hadith says sufficient, is it for a
person to be known as a liar, when
he relates everything that came to him, everything.
Anything I hear, I forward.
Any message I get, I forward it.
Anything comes to me, I forward it.
It's a sickness today, we're living in a
different age, the age of WhatsApp, where everything
we get, it's juicy, it's interesting.
There's no investigation, there's no authentication, there's no
verification, and we just forwarded it to the
whole contact list.
And sometimes we say forwarded as received.
On the day of judgment, you won't be
able to say, Oh Allah, forgive me because
I did put a little disclaimer at the
bottom saying forwarded as received.
The hadith says, مَن كَانَ يُؤْمِنُ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ
الْآخِرِ فَلْيَقُلْ خَيْرًا أَوْ لِيَصْمُتْ Whoever claims to
truly believe in Allah and is concerned about
the day of accounts, the day of judgment,
will only utter that which is good or
remain silent.
Because I'm worried about hisar.
I'm worried about accounts.
Yesterday, I visited a certain uncle and there
was one boy videoing everything that was going
on.
I had to stop him and say, Listen,
if you want to keep videoing, tell us,
we'll be on good behavior.
We're a group of youngsters talking, we might
say a thing or two that's not up
for the public.
So immediately he apologized.
Why did I say that?
I don't want to be held accountable just
for a young boy's video.
Imagine in Allah's court, all of us should
be upon best behavior at all times.
May Allah make us such that we're always
worried about what we utter.
Now, when you've made a mistake, the mistake
is either a blunder connected to you, which
Allah will forgive.
But if the blunder is connected to another
party, it's going to be very difficult to
solve that on the day of judgment.
Do you have the courage to go to
that person and say, Listen, I did X,
Y, and Z.
Forgive me.
Or at least if you're shy and they're
really a good person, you can say to
them, Please forgive me for anything I said
or did because I've said and I've done
a lot.
They might say, No problem.
MashaAllah.
What that NP, that no problem, it's not
a number plate.
No problem is actually your salvation on the
day of judgment because you can say, Oh
Allah, I sought forgiveness and he said, No
problem, wiped out.
Subhanallah.
However, it gets deeper.
I told you three things.
Don't forget.
I started my speech with these three words.
Authentication, verification, and investigation.
Ya ayyuha allatheena amanoo.
O you who believe.
I'm among those.
InshaAllah, we're all from among those.
We claim to be from among them.
May Allah accept us from among them.
The minute you hear, O you who believe,
you need to look and say, What is
it?
Let me know.
In jaa'akum faasikum binaba'in fatabayanoo.
When a sinful person, this is the literal
translation.
When a sinful person comes to you with
information, what should you do?
Those three words.
Verify, authenticate, investigate.
Why?
Before you believe it.
Because Allah says, an tusiboo qawman bi jahala,
fatusbihoo ala maa fa'altum nadimeen.
Because then, if you don't verify, you don't
authenticate, you don't investigate thoroughly, you will hurt
people.
You will reach, or you will actually have
hurt, reach the people.
Some damage would reach the people from you
and you will regret it.
Whether it's regret in this world or the
next.
Sometimes in this world, we discover this was
a lie.
And sometimes in the hereafter, we will discover
it was a lie.
Which one is cheaper?
It's cheaper to find out here.
I can sort it out.
If I found out there, I don't know
what's going to happen.
May Allah forgive us.
So, to watch the time and to make
sure that we are cleansed, it will enhance
society and it will build society.
When the accusation against Aisha r.a came
about, the people fell into three groups.
One were those who created the whole tale
and those who were the masterminds behind it,
a man known as Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn
Salul and so on.
Two were those on the other side who
said, listen, don't talk about this.
You can't do it, I can't do it,
that means she cannot do it.
Topic closed.
Don't ever talk about it.
Allah says that in the Qur'an.
Best of people.
The third were those who were dilly-dally,
some way this way, that way.
Okay, they fell prey to the spreading of
that information.
What happened?
Allah says, لِكُلِّ مْرِئٍ مِّنْهُمَّ اكْتَسَبَ مِنَ الْإِذْمِ
Every one of them will get a portion
of the sin as per what they have
done.
Be careful.
There was no need to spread a tale.
Okay, where am I going?
Let me tell you.
Today, if I've investigated and I've authenticated, even
if it's knowledge that comes to you, sometimes
you have a person like myself come to
you, I stand here and I start rattling
out things to you, information, knowledge.
It's your duty as a Muslim, go and
investigate, go and thoroughly authenticate, go and find
out, ask the difficult questions and keep going
until you are satisfied with your human capacity
according to what Allah has asked you to
do.
I am under the instruction of Allah, so
are you.
But I have a human capacity.
Now, after you've done that, if still you
arrived at a wrong conclusion, you are forgiven.
Why?
Because you used your human capacity, and you
used the guidance of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala, as a result, you arrived at a
conclusion, you are forgiven.
To the degree that a judge, judging between
people, is not allowed to declare a judgment
without giving both parties the opportunity equally and
fairly to present the evidences, and then he
has to apply his human capacity to fulfill
the instruction of Allah.
The hadith says if the judge makes a
mistake, he's rewarded because of his trial, because
he tried.
He doesn't get a sin, because he did
not do it intentionally.
And if he gave his judgment, and it
was correct, he gets a double reward.
One for being correct, and two for the
trial.
So you and I would not be sinful
if we tried, and we verified, and human
capacity, and then you need to know how
to navigate through it.
Now, every piece of news, and anything regarding
anyone, you and I included, every one of
us without exception, there will always be a
minimum of two sides.
Someone will love you so much, and someone
will hate you so much.
Minimum.
Some of us, mashallah, we're fortunate, there are
more than two sides.
There's about ten sides to it.
Someone loves you a lot, someone loves you
a little, someone hates you a little bit,
someone doesn't, someone doesn't really know, and so
on.
But generally two things.
Two contrasting things.
Why?
Because Allah wants to give the rest of
the world the opportunity to verify, investigate, and
authenticate.
Let's take a look today at Palestine.
We know that there is a genocide happening,
but on the other side, isn't there a
story of people saying, what genocide?
Am I right?
Aren't we trying to say this is totally
unacceptable, and on the other side, isn't there
someone saying, well, you know what, we have
the right to defend ourselves.
And on this side, they're saying, well, are
you the only guys who have the right
to defend themselves?
Because you wait, when the others wake up
and start realizing they also have a right
to defend themselves, then guess what?
There's going to be a world war.
May Allah Almighty not do that.
May Allah Almighty help us resolve the matter.
But you and I know, we are dealing
with the biggest and greatest criminal of our
age.
We never dreamt, I for one never dreamt
in my life that I would come across
such a heinous genocide while I'm living.
And you find people justifying it, patting them
on the back to say, well done, you
murdered so and so.
They don't even call it a murder.
They call it an operation.
So if you notice, they use smart words
to describe what?
The same crime.
And if it were done by the other
side, then another type of a word is
used.
Nelson Mandela was considered a terrorist for more
than 50 years.
Do you realize?
What was it?
Verify, investigate, authenticate.
It took them 50 years to realize actually
he's a freedom fighter, fighting for his land.
He came out a hero, Nobel Prize winner.
May Allah Almighty grant us an understanding.
One example, I don't have much time.
But I want to tell you, there's two
sides to it.
I always tell the people across the globe,
Muslim, non-Muslim, when they say things about
Palestine, I said, you know what?
If you are siding with the wrong people,
you need to go back and investigate.
It's possible.
And you know, when you talk to people,
you and I know that we are fully
with the Palestinians.
We believe the land is theirs, it was
always theirs.
And there is no chance that we would
ever compromise what is theirs.
And there is no chance that we would
betray them either.
May Allah Almighty forgive us for our shortcomings
and our helplessness.
However, if someone comes and tell you that,
you know what?
Biblically, we own the land.
It's very easy for the rest of the
world or for anyone or even for those.
They took more than 150 to 200 years
to brainwash their own people into believing that
we all have to go back there.
It was a political thing.
It was never a religious thing.
It's all political.
It's got nothing to do with religion.
They conned their own people into believing they've
got to go there in order to fulfill
something political.
Telling them it's all religious.
That's why there are a large number of
Jewish people across the globe who are totally
against Zionism.
How did all this come about?
Again, verify, authenticate, investigate thoroughly.
You'll find out that it doesn't mean because
you belong to a religion, then the land
where the prophet was suddenly belongs to those
of that religion.
We are Muslims.
Has anyone of us claimed Mecca or Medina?
Can we?
But if there is an agenda, it will
take a hundred years for them to brainwash
us into believing that actually we own a
piece of Mecca.
Come, let's go.
It took them long.
The entertainment industry, a lot of other industries,
the educational systems at times have been used
in order to do what?
The opposite of what I started the lecture
with.
There's no investigation.
There's no authentication.
We're just happy we heard something and we
believed it.
That is the crime.
So when I look at the world, all
siding on the wrong side, I tell myself,
these guys have no time to authenticate, to
verify and to investigate thoroughly.
That's on the political front on a global
level.
But even on our community levels, our own
ummah level and our family levels, our individual
levels, we are guilty of also not investigating,
not verifying, not even trying to authenticate what
has come to us.
And I remember studying the tafsir of the
verse I read earlier about, O you who
believe, when a sinner comes to you, if
you notice I told you that's the literal
translation.
The reason is, one might argue this man
is not sinful.
Why should I investigate it?
Big argument.
Well, if you look carefully, I don't know.
Aren't all the children of Adam sinful?
Aren't we all sinful?
Do you know what one of the tafsirs
says?
That by the fact that he came to
you with the news of another person, he's
already a sinner.
Subhanallah.
He's already a sinner.
Because you're not supposed to backbite, you're not
supposed to slander.
Backbiting in Islam, many of us don't know
what it is.
We know it's a sin.
Say, don't backbite.
Don't backbite.
They say, but I'm not backbiting, I'm telling
the truth.
Right?
Actually backbiting is when you're telling the truth.
When you tell the truth about someone behind
their backs in a way that they would
not like it if they were there.
That is backbiting.
If you were lying, it's slander.
It's bohdan.
It's even worse than backbiting.
Because then you have a double crime.
One is you're speaking behind his back and
two is you're lying.
So we need to know that nobody should
justify backbiting.
And if someone comes to you with a
tale of another, I don't want to say
by virtue of them coming because there's nothing
virtuous about it.
But what I should say is the mere
fact that they came to you with the
news already renders them sinful.
And if they're sinful, investigate thoroughly.
Or just keep quiet.
Today we have a problem here in South
Africa and in so many other countries, England,
India, Pakistan, wherever you go, wherever there are
groups of Muslims, what's happening?
Wallahi, groups from amongst us are badmouthing groups
from amongst us who are sometimes badmouthing them
back and confusing the public.
And what's going on?
We should stop that.
It's not befitting a person of knowledge to
use foul language.
Not at all.
It's never prophetic.
I always ask myself that the language I'm
using, if Nabi s.a.w. was here,
would he have used it?
If Abu Bakr s.a.w. whom we
all claim to love was here, would he
use the language?
No.
If that's the case and you're really a
knowledgeable person, don't use it.
If you do, you're frustrated and you're falling
into the trap of shaitan no matter how
long your beard is.
And I'm sorry to say that but it's
a fact.
Many of us, we look at someone with
a nice beard and say, mashallah, there's noor
on this guy's face.
Check, he looks so pious, such a lacker
guy.
You don't know.
Wait and sit.
Let him talk.
Open his mouth.
If he's respectful, he fears Allah.
If he's not respectful, it's a sign he's
far from Allah.
What is a sign of your salah being
accepted?
It shows in your character.
That's it.
That's why the Prophet s.a.w. when
they asked Aisha r.a, tell us about
Nabi s.a.w. and his character.
She said, كان خلوقه القرآن.
His character was the Qur'an, embodiment of
the Qur'an.
He, the whole of Islam was embodied in
one man.
That was him.
Beautiful when he addressed the enemies respectfully.
I always love this example of Musa s
.a.w. being told by Allah with his
brother Harun s.a.w. that when you
go to the Pharaoh, speak kindly with soft
words.
And that the beauty of it is Allah
knew in his divine knowledge that Firaun is
never going to accept the message.
But still Allah says, go speak to him
softly.
One might ask, a child could ask, Oh
Allah, why did you even tell Musa s
.a.w. to go to him?
When you knew, he's not going to accept.
But that's لِقَامَةِ الْحُجَّةِ عَلَيْهِ in order for
the evidence to pile up against him.
To say, well, we gave you the chance,
here's the evidence.
Nonetheless, it's up to us to purify the
tongue.
Investigate.
Sometimes good people, we have a very bad
thought about them because ourselves, we have fallen
prey to Shaytan.
And sometimes, what is so good about us
that we actually recognize those who are good.
اِنَّمَا يَعْرِفُ ذَا الْفَضْلِ مِنَ النَّاسِ ذَوُّهُ It
is only the people of a certain virtue
who will recognize others with the same virtue.
I remember clearly, there was a movie that
came out some time back.
I'm not going to go into its permissibility
and prohibition because it's there.
The point I want to raise is, some
people were talking, that movie was called The
Message.
They were talking and saying, did you see
Hamza r.a and the noor on his
face?
And I'm busy sitting there thinking that was
Anthony Quinn, a non-Muslim actor with a
beard.
Anthony Quinn.
And guys just by looking at this fair
face with a nice white beard thinking, look
at the noor on his...
What has it got to do with Hamza
r.a?
Nothing whatsoever.
Why did you think there was noor?
Because you yourself do not have noor.
So you don't know how to distinguish.
When you want to know noor, the darkest
person in the masjid could have the most
noor.
It's got nothing to do with your complexion
at all.
But only picked up by those who really
have noor.
You know when you have qiraat, the recitation
of the Quran.
People will come to the front of the
masjid and recite.
And a lot of the public will say,
mashallah, wow, beautiful, excellent.
Go and ask the Qaris, Qari Ayyub and
the others, ask them.
They will tell you straight, this guy has
a lot of work to do.
He's making too many mistakes.
Say, but how could you say that?
They are right.
It takes one to know one.
It takes a top Qari to know another
top Qari.
The rest of them enjoy the voice.
They enjoy one of the tune, the tone.
They might enjoy melodious because it's the Quran.
You'll enjoy the Quran anyway.
But to tell how top he is, you
need to be top yourself.
If you're not, you don't know.
You have to admit.
The same applies in every other field.
Now, to end this, I just want to
remind everyone to say, everyone on earth and
everything on earth will always have a minimum
of two sides to it.
Someone will say, this guy is good.
Someone will say, this guy is bad.
Someone will say, this is right.
Someone will say, this is wrong.
It will always be the case.
It's up to us.
It's up to us who fear Allah to
always ensure that even when teaching the non
-Muslims, we tell them, verify, authenticate, investigate to
the best of your ability, you'll never go
wrong.
No matter what it is.
Even a political situation, globally.
If you're going to verify, you're going to
go back.
You're going to investigate.
Keep on investigating.
You will come to realize the hoax of
Israel.
The hoax.
The joke of it.
Astaghfirullah.
And how they've pulled cotton wool over the
whole world into trying to claim that religiously,
it's ours.
Go back.
Investigate thoroughly.
If you really are concerned.
Verify.
And authenticate to the best of your ability.
We have technology.
We have so much more.
Find out.
May Allah grant us ease.
There's a lot that we could say on
this topic.
Because really, there are agendas in place in
order to brainwash us into believing certain things
that are not true as being true.
And this, even with games, with movies, with
so much that is happening, they've used a
lot of this in many cases to just
make a fool of us.
As Muslims, we've been warned in the Quran
to say, don't allow anyone to make a
fool of you.
And another thing, if you have a difference
of opinion with someone, it does not make
them evil.
You are a human.
There will always be differences amongst everyone.
Even if you love each other.
Be respectful about it.
Understand how to navigate it and go easy
with the tongue.
Because if you don't go easy with the
tongue, you destroy the ummah.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala forgive us
all.