al-Raghib al-Isfahani #81 – When Lies are GOOD & Truth is BAD

So saying something untrue actually removes humanity from you, you're actually putting yourself more in the category of those other creatures that do not have the ability because you are lowering yourself actually beneath them because at least they don't lie. Next thought Ah, so honey has a chapter about truthfulness and falsehood and truthfulness deserves to be praised and falsehood actually deserves to be blamed. We'll see there's some exceptions to that truthfulness, he says, is the foundation of everything that is praiseworthy, and this is based on a hadith and prophesy. So he said that truthfulness leads to piety and he's also said the opposite that lying leads to leads to

sin, the pillar of prophethood and the idea of Hoja of conclusive proof upon a people or an individual, it all hinges on the truthfulness, truthfulness of the Revelation, the truthfulness of the messenger and being able to trust both the messenger and the message. The result of this is piety. Okay, being truthful leads you to piety. And without this truthfulness, there would be no such thing as the *ty Yeah, because we wouldn't know what to trust. This is important for the feminists to keep in mind as they tried to say that, for example, that the vast majority of Islamic scholarship is dominated by men. And so they were interpreting things according to the patriarchy,

right? No, you've just done away with the entire city. And that is not okay. Nor is it logically sound. What matters is not the identity of a person, whether they're male or female. What matters is were they truthful, it is a moral issue, and it's not an issue of identity. And so you cannot be tricked by that. So giving them okay, like the ability to speak is something that's distinctive to human beings. Okay? The ability to be truthful, let's say, or the ability to not be truthful, a cat is not going to lie to you, they don't have that capacity, but human beings because they have bad and this is something distinct to us, then it is possible to say something true. And it is also

possible to say something that is untrue. And so saying something untrue, actually removes humanity from you, you're actually putting yourself more in the category of those other creatures that do not have the ability because you are lowering yourself actually beneath them, because at least they don't lie. And so that deals with a default situation. Obviously, the default is a truthfulness is praised, it's universally praised. Maybe the closest thing that we have to a universal value in the world is that truthfulness is good and that lying is bad. Are there any exceptions to that? So he says, yes, there are okay. There are certain situations in which lies are acceptable. And there are

certain situations in which truth is unwelcome. As for acceptable lies, we have a Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam about the ability to lie or fudge the truth for reconciliation, okay, so you have two brothers that are fighting, but not speaking to each other, you go to one of them, you say, you know, your brother's really sorry about what he did, he wants to make up and the person you're talking to says, what really, you completely made it up. It's not true. But it can be a good thing. And it's acceptable within the city to do this sort of thing, if it's going to lead to Seoul, if it's going to lead to them coming back together. And likewise, you go to the other brother

and tell him the same thing. Neither statement is true, but perhaps it will bring them back together in reconciliation, that is something that is permissible. Second, it is permissible to lie or fudge the truth to please one spouse, right? And this is famous, you know, sometimes your spouse might say, you know, does this make me look fat? And your answered better be No, right? And that's a quaint example, but or with the food, right? How does everything taste? It's the best food I've ever eaten. That's fantastic. It's great. Now is not the time to leave your Google review, or your Yelp review about how the service was terrible, and the food was undercooked and et cetera, et cetera.

This is not from our deep, okay, pleasing one spouse is worship. And so you should please your spouse, even if you have to fudge the truth a little bit. And then finally, deception of war. And this is something that prophesy said I'm sad and something that Muslims practice that the battle the trench, the battle that I'm not right when there are some deception going on, because in wartime, it's not that the ends justify the means. But it's at war time is a time of deception. It's a time of intelligence and counter intelligence and spies and counter spies and things like that. And so that's the name of the game. Everybody understands that. That's how war operates. So what is truth

unwelcome, well, backbiting, backbiting is unwelcome truth the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam forbid backbiting, talking about people negatively behind their backs, and he was asked specifically from by the companion, he said, What if what I say is true and the Prophet alayhi salatu salam responded, if what you said is true, then that is exactly what Backbiting is if it had been false, then that would have been slander and that is something that is even worse. And the second time in which the truth might be unwelcome is when you are going to expose somebody unnecessarily the the reputation of your fellow Muslims is sacred the prophesy said I'm sad that all of a Muslim is sacred

for another Muslim and he included their his wealth, his blood and his reputation. And so if you're going to expose something that's true about your neighbor, about your brother about your father about your whatever he smells funny, or he clips his toenails in a weird way or he does this weird thing he sings in the shower and it's horrible or a sin that he does in private. That should not be an ounce that should not be spread. It's not welcome and it's not okay according to the Sharia