The Public Mention of Evil… Quran Reflection [4-148]

Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa Salatu was Salam ala rasulillah, who ala alihi wa sahbihi wa Salatu Salam alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh are people who followed me online from like, back in 2012 the old school Snapchat days, I used to do put on reflections on Snapchat back in like 2012. So people would like watch my story on Snapchat. So this is a regular part of my process in normal been to reflect upon the Ayat of Allah and the way I'm doing it here is actually the way I always do it, which is normally I would, like attend or pray at home. And then I would as where, you know, as I'm either listening to that thought, Oh, yeah, you know, just maybe is stands out to me. And I would you know,

after all we had made sure to write that down and then share that with other people. Some thoughts that I had on on that particular verse from thought. So I used to call it that always reflections. This is you know, it's pretty much the same thing because we're going, Joe's by Joe's dinner every night. So today, we're in Joe's number six. As always, I'll let you know what just number six is made up of it is made up of sort of a nice out verse 148, until the end, and soda and Matt Ada from the beginning one to 81. So actually today I picked for you the very first year of this juice, which is from from Salt and Nisa, verse number 148, in which Allah who's Penwith to Allah says Ruby loving

the ship on rajim Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim. Now you have a lot who a job assume that a lot does not like the public mention of evil meaning code in a volume except the one who has been oppressed or the one who has been wronged. What kind of love send me an email that Allah is all hearing. And all knowing this verse right here, when we reflect upon this verse, there's actually quite a lot to delve into. And there's quite a lot that we learn. But number one, before we get into what is mentioned in this verse, And actually, this verse is the exception to the rule. So first, we have to establish the rule. The rule is, the default rule is that we don't talk about other people that we

don't mention other people's business, I find it very interesting to panela, that the default in our times has flipped. And what I mean by that is, if you're sitting in a gathering, and and you're sitting with a friend, or if you're just talking even one on one with a friend, a friend of yours, like they, they tell us something, unless they say, Hey, don't tell anybody that I said this, or don't mention to anyone that I mentioned this to you, our assumption is that we are free to go and tell everyone, right that, you know, oh, they didn't tell me not to tell anyone. So that means I can tell everyone as a Muslim, part of our character, and part of our morals is that the default is we

don't share other people's business or people's business with other people. And normally, the default would be we would go away from the default if the person says, Yeah, this is this is something that you can go ahead and share with people. Unless we know that specifically the default is that we don't share with people. This is a concept actually known as a monitor imaginisce, which is the responsibility of the sitting or the gathering. And I'm not part of a managing imagined is part of that responsibility is that what is said in a gathering is not set outside. And often tell I often say to people like imagine having friends like that, who understood amount of madness, that

you know, that if you tell them something, or you share something with them, that they that, that it's secure with them, and they won't share with anyone else, unless you specifically said, you know, to them that this is okay to share. I remember on one occasion, you know, getting a little bit personal, I remember on one occasion, and I don't want to get into detail because this is regarding someone in particular. But while I was a student in Medina, someone came for Umrah, someone that I knew. And this very common By the way, you know, being a student in Medina, we always met people that we knew because, you know, that's where you're in Medina, which is one place a lot of people

come to Medina. So you always you always seen relatives and friends and like community members, and so on and so forth. Because you're living there, a lot of people are coming from the outside. So you know, you see it all the time. So it's normal, you know, in any given month, you'd see, you know, at least a few people from from back home or from around that, you know, so someone came, and then something happened to them while they were in Medina. And then you know, and you know, something happened and you know, kind of helped them with what they were going through. And then later on, I got a phone call by someone who said, Hey, this happened to them. How come you didn't tell me? And I

was like, well, it's really none of your business for me to share this with you. And I said, What, why? Like, why are you asking me? And they said, well, because we spoke to that person and they just assumed that you're going to tell us that something happened. And I was like that assumption is actually wrong.

Cuz, you know, they didn't say, you know, this is something that you can tell that you can share with other people. So it's not my it's not my it's not my business to share this with others. So it happened to happen, you know, unless they specifically said, Okay, I'm comfortable you share it with you sharing with others that, you know, default is I wouldn't share. And to me it was surprising at that time, that, you know, it wasn't assumed that there's something that I would just share, as I said, you know, the defects because the default is not flipped that people have to specifically say to us, don't share this with you know, don't share this with other people. And I said, you know, it

to have friends like that are found a member that would actually follow that the Islamic default, is actually very comforting. And so I tell people, like, if you don't have friends like that, or if you don't have family members like that, you be that person. And then you can set that that son, right, that practice that good practice of, you know, my, my character is, and, you know, you know, the way I am, is that I don't, you know, talk about other people's business, and inshallah, tada, this Sunday, you can inspire other people with as well. And specifically, if you're a parent, this goes a very long way, when it comes to parenting, you know, kids learn from what we do, and the way we

behave far more than they learn from what we tell them, we can tell them all day, that, you know, you shouldn't share people's business, and she shouldn't gossip and shouldn't get into other people's business. But if they see us doing it, and if they hear that we're doing it, then they're going to automatically assume that this is okay. And this is correct to do. And so a lot of times I know in my generation, we often complain about problems that we have inherited, right, like, depending on your cultural cultural problems that are brought into Islam, cultural issues that are confused with, you know, is this Islamic? Or is this from the culture, a lot of times these issues,

they're from the culture, and to me, I say, Well, if we've like, had to deal with that, then we have to be insightful enough now at this moment to say, we're not going to pass that down to the next generation, even things like stereotypes, I'm not really gonna get into like racism, and you know, stereotypes and things like that. But that's those are learned. That's a learned behavior. That's, that's learned. And so how does this stereotype get passed down? Well, it's because we hear from someone, and when we hear something from a parent, especially especially at a young age, we take that as absolute fact, right? It's like, if my dad said it, then it must be, especially at a young

age. Recently, I've had a lot and I started to go off on a little bit of a tangent here. But recently, my, my son, my older son, les through six, he was having he was having a debate with one of my cousins, my cousins, who's older things in his in his, like, late 20s, or, like mid to late 20s. And my cousin actually recorded it and sent it to me. And what was the debate about the debate about was about the video starts and my cousin goes, so who's the best basketball player of all time? And latest like Michael Jordan, hands down? And he's like, no, it's you know, I don't want to say I don't wanna get controversial here but he's he's had somebody else and les was like, arguing

is like really into it. And latest six years old, he didn't he doesn't really know much about like, he knows about basketball and this and that. He doesn't know much about Michael Jordan actually interesting. Lee enough. Let's delete his evidence from Michael Jordan being the best basketball player of all time. Was that he? He defeated? The the the monsters from space Dan, and my cousins like what are you talking about? That's not even real. That's a movie. He goes Michael Jordan defeated monsters, obviously the greatest basketball player of all time. And so but for me, it was like, cuz that's my opinion, for life. That is like set in stone. Because my dad believes that like,

that's my dad. So my dad has to be right. And it's this is that age, race that tender. It's a beautiful age handle. I know an age will come where everything your parents say is wrong and is you know, absolutely not the truth. May Allah protect us. That's, you know, that's a challenge that we all have to deal with, or many of us have to deal with. But at least at this young age, like everything, we do everything we say they take it as fact and the Absolute Truth. That is a that is that's a pleasure. Right? We they increases us in love for our children, but also it is an amount it is a responsibility. So when it comes to our Islamic morals, we have to we have to live them if we

want our kids to have them as well. They have to see that we don't talk about other people talking about other people's had Allah is a is a big responsibility. There's a statement, narrate upon an hesson of the Allahu anhu in which he said mentioning someone else falls into one of three categories. He said either it is labor, or number two is done or number three, it is if he said Riba is to mention something that is true, he said, but done is to mention something which is not true. He said if is to simply pass pass on what you have heard. So if you're talking about other people Milla protected, the chances are we're going to fall into one of these

three categories. liba backbiting so backbiting is to mention something that is true. We know the famous Hadith of the prophets, I send them where the prophets I said him defined

backbiting as Vic ruka hog be my chakra it is to say something about your brother that they don't like. And the companion said, What if they What if it's true? What if What I'm saying is true? And the prophets I send them He said, If what you're saying is true, then you have, you have back bit them. And if what you're saying is false, then you have slander them. And so and so this is where I send all the love. I was getting that from, where he said to if you're talking about somebody else, and you're saying something, which is true, then it's a thing, but if they don't like it, if they don't like for us to mention this, this is a cliche, but it's backbiting, if what you're saying is

false, meaning you knowingly, knowingly a person

said something about someone which is not true, this is slender, by what about the third category? You're not really sure you don't know if it's true or not. This is what is known as if or we can say rumor mongering right or gossiping. This is something all of these three things are forbidden in Islam and and and FIBA and done backbiting and slander are actually major sins in Islam. And if can become a major sin just depending on the the severity of it may last penta Allah protect us, we all have heard the Hadeeth that destiny is time and money Turku man they are any that it is from the perfection of one's Islam that they leave that which does not concern them. We know that as Muslims,

we take our speech very seriously. We know that not only does our speech have implications in this life, but absolutely in the afterlife as well. We know that everything we say we can be held accountable for as Allah Subhana Allah says,

Mariana Filomena, Colin, in the other day, he wrote a book on it that not a single word does a person say or utter, except that there is an observer writing it down. And this is referring to the angels, and why is it being written down while it is being written down? Because we will be held accountable for that may Allah protect us on the Day of Judgment. This is why the prophets I send them said, and I know these are many of these Hadith you may have heard before. But I think these are Hadith that we need to hear over and over and over again, because it's very easy to get lacks in these matters when it comes to our speech, especially now with social media, and I'm gonna get into

social media and a little bit in sha Allah, but the Prophet sallallahu send them he said, Man, can I you know, biLlahi while your mill after failure call hire an hourly, yes, what that whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day should say that which is good, or be silent, remain silent, this one headed, if we were to apply it into our lives, it would change so many of our relationships, it would change the way we deal and the way we talk with people, it would honestly, and I hate to say this, but it would make life online quite boring for a lot of people. Because a lot of people seek their entertainment online, from talking about people and mentioning things about people. These

first these two ideas that I mentioned number one, min Hosni Salman mately from it is from the perfection of one's Islam to leave that which does not concern them that head deep and this heady, that whoever believes that a lot in the last day should say that which is good or remain silent. If we just applied these two Hadeeth the way we behave online would change. And I think it would change for the good because people could look at us as Muslims and take us as an example of how we're supposed to behave in you know, everyday life and in person, but also online. Our character online is a reflection upon our morals as a Muslim, the rules don't change just because we're online. So

just like we wouldn't back by when we're talking to someone in person, we wouldn't. We wouldn't gossip and spread rumors. Likewise, when we're online, the rules don't change the same rules that apply online, even when it comes to something like which is you know, a little bit off topic. But even when it comes to our modesty in our interaction with people, that doesn't the rules don't change online just because we're talking to someone online, the same issues when it comes to gender relations and all that. All the same. All the same things apply just because we're online, the rules don't change. And this is why this matters so serious, and that is why the prophets I send them

amazing Hadeeth he said, Man yellowman li muy bien en there he was Mr. benavente late Oberman napoletana he said the one who guarantees for me guarantees a safeguard for me, that which is between their jaws and that which is between their legs, I guarantee for them. paradise meaning if if you can control that which is between your jaws meaning our tongues, and that which is between our legs, meaning our cry

Keep this PG so our sexual desires I don't know it's sorry to mention that word but I know that a lot of people are listening and there's kids and stuff, but inshallah, that that's okay. But guarantee for me It promises no guarantee those two things for me that was between your jaws and that which is between your legs I guarantee for you paradise and one of the reasons why the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that is because that is the source of the vast majority of our sins, and the vast majority of transgression and oppression that takes place that is the source of that private parts. zeca Look, I had that word, those words on the tip of my tongue I for some

reason, I was blanking on those words, private parts guarantee for me, your private parts.

Yeah, so private parts and your tongue not a lot. There, there's a lot that can be said about this industry. Hi, Sam goes through great lengths, to emphasize the importance of watching what we say and taking responsibility for our tongues and taking responsibility for that which comes out of our, our our mouth. One of the things that,

you know, I'll just say in closing in this particular point, is a statement that they the the out of, they would say, which I find very profound. And you know, just something that is something to contemplate and think about is they would say Kenny metha column will be here, that a word that once you speak it, it makes you its prisoner. But a word that is not spoken you It remains your prisoner, right, you have control over as long as you haven't said something, it's your prisoner you can control when to say it How to say who to say to, if whether we should say it or not. But once it comes out of our mouth, we're a prisoner to that word, we're a prisoner to that statement. In this

life in the afterlife, we have to deal with the consequences in this life and the afterlife. And that is why every day almost we see on social media, you know, someone getting canceled, or someone being exposed or whatever, because of something they said online. Maybe they said it like 510 years ago, I often tell my students that it's it's a good idea to go back through your posts online every now and then, and evaluate, you know, what you set online and go through it and be like, is this really a true reflection of who I am? Or is this something I said, because I was feeling angry or upset or emotional or whatever it may be? What an emotion that caused me to say this one, this is

not this is not a reflection of who I am. as a as a public speaker, myself, I consider myself to be blessed. And I hadn't intended that I that I got online, I started Public Speaking at a time, where

a lot of people you know, I guess it's a blessing for me, and maybe not for some people, but a lot of people had fallen victim to them saying stuff and it being recorded online or whatever. When I started speaking, I guess it was it was about 2012 2011 2012. And a lot of my teachers handed in that they had already warned me that said, Look, you know you're in the public space. Now you have to be very careful about what you say online. And I've always tried my best to be careful about what I say and how I say it. Especially because you know, when we're dealing with people online, people come from so many different life experiences and backgrounds. And I may think something even joking

subpanel even making jokes. There's a couple times that I've joked online, and I've usually regretted it even though it's like a perfectly like sanitary clean joke. And it's I didn't think it was hurtful. But you know, people come from so many different backgrounds and something that that I may think is, you know, totally fine, because of something that someone's been through. They may not appreciate joking about that matter. And from my perspective, I'm like, Yeah, what's the big deal like this canceled culture is getting out of hand and I can say all that stuff right to try and defend myself and say, you know, this is ridiculous and people get are getting over sensitive about

everything and you know, the things are crazy. But as a believer as a Muslim, it is already part of our faith that we are careful about how our words affect people what impact they have on people that's something that we have a responsibility not as you know, Americans or this or that or you know people online or wherever you come from, but as believers as Muslims, we should we should set the example you know, we're careful about you know, do our due our words, how they affect people and this is part of our Deen Okay, so that is the default and I you know, sorry to spend so much time on the default but that default is important. This verse tells us out of that default and also the

exception to that so so Allah says, and now you have below who john is soo min an old Allah does not like the public mention of evil. amongst this is are things like backbiting and rumor mongering and and gossiping and this is not mentioning bad things about people publicly. This is what a lot of speaking about here.

But Allah gave us an exception in lemon volume, except the case where someone has been wronged or someone has been oppressed, that in this case law has annoyed to Allah made an exception. And this is, once again, this is the exception to the rule. And there are other exceptions, but this is one of the exceptions that has been mentioned that, for example, if you know, and I hate to get a little bit controversial here, but in the case of someone causing a case of abuse, for example, and that abuse is, you know, the victim of abuse sought help, and no one's helping this person. And, and I've spoken to people like this, you know, oftentimes we're very quick to judge the person who goes out

publicly and says, you know, so and so has abused me or so and so has done something wrong. And we're like, how dare you? You know?

How dare you, you know, backbite? Or slander this person? or How dare you publicly mentioned their sins? Or like, how did you know where we're supposed to hide our brothers and sisters, since, you know, this is wrong for you to do that. But in a lot of cases in, in my experience, the majority of cases and the law knows best, but I'm just saying, in my experience, the majority of cases, when you actually go speak to that, sister, usually it's a sister Milla protectors, but sometimes my brother as well, they will say something I look, I went to, through the proper channels, I spoke to, like I spoke to, you know, the community issue, I spoke to the Imam, I spoke to the community, and you

know, it's been swept under the rug. And I feel like, not only is it me, like, okay, I was wrong, that was harmed, I was a victim of abuse. But I'm afraid that because this person is not being held accountable, there could be other victims of their abuse as well. And I had no choice but to go public and to go online. And then that, like I said, in my, in my experience, the majority of people, and that's not not to say that's always the case, sometimes Yeah, a person may go beyond the bounds and, and may, you know, say something about someone which is incorrect, and, and publicize their sins without a reason that can happen as well. But as I said, in a lot of cases, it is a case

of a lost parent says in them and lose him. This is the exception of what a person has been wrong, they have been oppressed, this is a case where a public mention of a sin or of something evil or something bad is allowed by Allah whose panel to add on. So as I said, this is the this is the exception to the rule, it doesn't mean by the way that we go out and we seek other people's faults, which is the other extreme right and we have to be fair, we have to be just we have take the middle path, there are those who live to just expose people's flaws and faults, right. So so we have to be balanced in this matter. And, and so because going out of our way to expose people or to you know,

find their faults, is also another matter and that is also very serious. In the end of the day we were answerable we will we will be questioned by last count Allah, we have to answer to Allah for when we spoke publicly because it is a responsibility. It is a responsibility when we speak publicly about something wrong or something an evil or whatever it may be. One of the ideas that I think is is very scary for us in this manner is the idea of an earlobe narrated by Neff at Nef, it narrates upon arrival and this is mentioned in Timothy, where he said that the Prophet sallallaahu send me said that I would love to have a Muslim that Allah who I want to say that whoever whoever seeks to

expose their brothers faults or flaws, then Allah will expose this person's flaws themself. Woman to Allah who I wrote that he went Oh, canopy, Joe directly that whoever sees whoever seeks to expose their their brother's faults or flaws, Allah will have this person's flaws and faults exposed in a very serious way. And this is why the prophets that I send them, he said, Allah will expose this person's flaws, even if this person is hiding in the depths of their house, because nothing is hidden from Allah, his panel of data. And so we put ourselves in a position where we are oppressing someone in this way, by unfairly speaking bad of them or speaking evil of them, and harming them in

this way. Right? Because once again, that is a responsibility, then Allah who will expose this person's faults themselves, even if they're hiding in the depths of their house, because as I said, Nothing is nothing is is hidden from the last time out. And why have you seen this happen? We've seen it happen where a person who who makes it their job to go you know, expose people and call people out and this and that and always just like that's their that's how there's people who do that online, by the way, that's how they get popular online is by going out and finding people's issues and they may get attention and but we've seen that in many cases, what happens is this person their

own faults and flaws I get exposed me Allah has pointed out to protect us is a very, very scary Heidi. So as I said, this is a responsibility and this is one of the things that this teaches us and that is why this area

You know, in talking about volume, it is very important because Allah says in the end of this verse, what kind of lung semi and there is a man that Allah is all hearing and all knowing that nothing is hidden from Allah, it's kind of like to Allah. So in the case of, you know, are we are we actually doing it because of this valid reason, valid reason of learning that Allah is mentioned here? Or have we gone beyond the bounds of what is considered appropriate and correct and permissible? Allah knows a lot here is what we are saying, and Allah knows what we are saying Allah knows the truth. And also, the second point to this is actually very beautiful. A second reflection is that the one

who has been oppressed, the Muslim, that when they go public, and when they've mentioned something publicly, they may be rejected, they may be cast aside, especially if they're speaking out against, you know, someone who's powerful, or someone who was well known, or someone who was famous, or whatever it may be, Allah is now reassuring them through this verse, when Allah says, what kind of Allah who sent me I'm really mad that Allah is all hearing and all knowing that even if a person has the intention to put an end to someone else's learning, and someone else's oppression, but the opposite happened in the person themselves, word cast aside, know that a lot is all hearing and all

knowing Allah knows the truth. And also, you know, the justice and fairness of a friend to Allah, we may not always get fairness in this life. But fairness in the afterlife, is something that we firmly believe in, as believers, and that gives us that gives us peace. And that gives us comfort, that, especially when we are standing up against a boon that we're speaking out against one, we may not and in many cases, to Pamela, we don't get results in this life, we are not treated fairly when especially when we as I said, when we speak out, speak out,

speak truth to power, right? That's the that's the common term these days, right? You speak truth to power. You don't, you know, you don't always get a good reaction. But our reward and a lot is what Allah and Allah knows the truth. One last point is the opposite of this is also true. This is something known as Maholm and maharlika, that the opposite is also true. So what that means is that Allah has said in this verse that Allah does not like the public mentioned of evil or someone's evil. So this also means that Allah does love the public mention of other people's good, right? So if we're mentioning good about people, if we're saying good things about someone, we are encouraging

goodness, that this is something that is beloved to Allah who's kind of like to Allah, and so from our practice should be, and especially if we're trying to, you know, I said earlier, if we stopped talking about people, then life online would become boring. Well, we can make exciting by mentioning good things about people by encouraging each other and uplifting one another, and motivating one another to be better by mentioning their goodness, you know, a very powerful tactic in Dawa and calling others to goodness is to mention the good that they have to encourage them to further their good. And parents know what I'm talking about. So if you're a parent, you know exactly what I'm

talking about. That when you say to your child, I'm really proud of you for doing this. I know that you're very good at this. I know that you can if you can do this, you can do this as well, right? I'm proud of you for for example, just the other day I said too late. I said are proud of you for cleaning your room. If you can clean your room. I know you can organize your closet as well. And he was so happy. He said yeah, Dad, look how awesome my room looks. I said it looks amazing. Looks great. Oh, can you do that with your closet? I think you can say yeah, I can just give me 15 minutes 100 now he went organize the closet, everything was great. But you know, this has to be the end of

the day, right? This is how we encourage others to do good.