Sadullah Khan – 4th Post Witr Talk Ramadaan 1444 2023

I greet you with a universal greeting of

peace. And as we continue our theme,

may Allah

guide us in all that we have learned

and all we have heard and to imbibe

the values that we learn

from the daily experiences we witness that people

endure.

Maurice Hastings from the United States of America

was convicted of a 1983

murder, which he did not commit.

And this month,

March 2023,

he was declared innocent

by a judge in Los Angeles

after he had spent 38 years in prison.

He went to jail in 1985

at the age of 31,

and he came out of jail

this month at the age of 68.

A victim of false testimony,

and subsequently,

separated from his family,

robbed of his dignity,

and denied

38 years

of freedom of his life.

How could this happen? We ask.

Well, it did happen,

and these things

do happen.

You see,

when slander,

accusations,

vengefulness,

and condemnation

prevails in any society,

then many innocent people

are bound to suffer.

Therefore,

to prevent innocent people

being victims of the

evil insinuations

of people,

we find among the fundamental

aspects of Islam,

the teachings of the preservation of human dignity

and the respect for the rights

and integrity

of human beings.

The prophet

said

A is

that person

in whom humanity at large. In other words,

that person

through whom human beings as a whole

find safety and security

regarding their life,

their honor, and their property.

Today with the common usage of social media

as the primary public platform,

anyone can post anything.

And social media has become the channel

for broadcasting

all kinds of information,

whether good or bad,

true or false,

motivational or discouraging,

praising or humiliating,

complimentary or insulting,

unifying

or divisive.

And it's almost impossible

and it is exhaustive

to read everything that you receive,

analyze everything that is sent,

evaluate the reasonableness

of what is being said,

to consider

whether what you have received

should be believed or not,

and then to decide

whether what you have received

is worthy of being shared with others.

Of course there are people

who always send negative information in particular.

Whenever they hear something bad about someone,

they forward it to others.

There are people who always send

negative information about other people,

even sometimes ulema,

about other ulema,

or even friends or family

gossiping

about the rest of the family or about

other friends.

Be weary of that.

Imam al Shafi'i,

Rahimahullah

said,

whoever

speaks bad to you about other people,

be rest assured he speaks to other people

bad about you.

Woman

And when he's happy with you, he'll praise

you and say good things about you that

you don't even deserve.

But the same person, when he's angry or

displeased

with you, will say bad things about you

that are not true

and that you don't deserve. So be conscious

of what we hear,

what we receive,

and more importantly, let's be careful of what

we say,

where we say

it, how we say it, who we say

it to, and most importantly,

why are we saying it. There's no law

in any country that obligates you to forward

anything to anyone.

So in this era, in this period

of global instantaneous

communication,

which is very beneficial,

but also opens the door to fitna.

Expansive

fitna. I don't mean expensive. I mean expansive,

far reaching. With a click of a button,

you can reach anyone,

anywhere in the world.

And the whole world has access to that

information which you have forwarded.

And some of us,

without verifying the truthfulness of the content of

what we have received, we forward this to

other people.

And He

said Allah Allah detests.

Allah dislikes.

That you carry tales from one person to

the other. You know, he said, she said.

No verification.

I don't know. Someone said so. I'm just

telling you.

Allah detests

The hadith said,

Allah dislikes

telling of tales,

unnecessary

questioning,

unnecessary questioning,

and the abuse of wealth.

So let us ensure

that we are not of those people who

repeat everything they hear. Let us not be

of those who repeat everything we hear,

and forward everything negative that we receive

because such an action, which is quite common,

is highly irresponsible

and an extremely bad habit.

In this month, when we try to remove

bad habits, let that be one bad habit

that we put to rest. Prophet

warned, hadith documented

Sufficient is the sign that you are a

liar.

Sufficient is the sign

of your unreliability.

Literally,

sufficient is it that you are a liar

that you repeat everything that you hear. It

makes you an unreliable person.

When you repeat

everything you hear. May Allah

guide us and protect us, our tongues and

our minds and our actions

because by our words and our deeds,

innocent people may be harmed.