Suhaib Webb – Slandering A Woman Because of Her Past

Very important question from a dear Swiss subscriber,

Salam Sheikh wa alaikum salam wa rahmatullah.

If a woman commits zina or minor zina

and then repents sincerely and tries to be

better and then later is slandered or has

to face something of that nature when people

talk about her due to the ayats, do

the ayats, the verses of the 24th chapter

of the Quran, Surat An-Nur, about slandering

chaste women apply to her.

So there's a few parts to this question.

Number one is there is no such thing

as like in the sense of minor zina

being equal to major zina.

Zina is *.

Minor zina is certainly sinful, certainly a problem,

a big problem, but not equal to to

zina.

And then repents sincerely and tries to be

better and then is later slandered or has

to face something of that nature when people

talk about her due to the ayats, the

verses of Surat An-Nur apply to her

about slandering chaste women?

Absolutely.

Because unless this was a court case, okay,

unless there was an accusation by her husband,

let's say hypothetically of her committing zina or

there were four witnesses that saw her committing

zina.

That's a whole different discussion.

Talking now about you know the on-the

-ground sort of slandering and things that happen

in community which can be very very harmful

and destabilizing.

So the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam has

said whoever repents from a sin sincerely that

is like the one that has no sin.

So definitely and this is still a major

slander of this woman, a disaster.

People should, unless it's a court situation, unless

it's being adjudicated hypothetically, then until this point

these things are abstractions, especially in the West.

You need to stay away from that stuff.

Now if if she was trying to get

married and she had or even a man

had exhibited this behavior as a pattern, then

people need to be warned.

However, they should be warned without going into

details.

We say the default is ijmari and the

exception is tafsili, meaning a person could say

to someone like I strongly advise you not

to get involved with this person.

If this person was chronically doing this and

you know, they exhibited behavior which is it's

hard to trust that they've really, you know,

repented.

So the usl in this is to to

keep it general, not to get into details.

Then asking also if they repent, are they

now a chaste person?

Well, there will be a chaste person, but

they would no longer, of course, be considered

a virgin, right?

So there's a difference between chastity and being

a virgin if that's what you're asking.

Although we know the hadith about marrying virgins

is weak, the hadith of Jabir is sahih.

Bukhari is contextual to Jabir.

That's a long discussion.

I talk about it on the fiqh of

nikah class.

So we're gonna start here live, Swiss as

well, alhamdulillah.

How does this fit into the Prophet Sallallahu

alayhi wa sallam saying Abu Sa'id al

-Ansari reported that Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam

said, Regret is part of repentance and one

who truly repents is like the one without

sin.

Alhamdulillah, I'm glad that I explained that hadith

before.

I saw that you asked it.

Barakallahu fiqh.

May Allah bless you and increase you.

As-salamu alaykum.

Allahu akbar.