In the world we live in we are constantly bombarded with information from many different sources: television, press, social media, conversations with peers, friends and family or what we have learned from teachers and men and women of knowledge and study.
And this information is often contradictory, so how do we know what to believe?
On what basis do we accept one discourse or another?
I have come to realize that the answer lies in trust, and for that trust to be placed in the right place we have to recognize the truth when we see it and distinguish it from falsehood.
In this way, the two keys to living in this world ‘ala bayyinatin min al-amr, with our eyes open, seeing a situation clearly for what it is, are sidq and amana.
How do we acquire these qualities?
The answer is belief in Allah and His Messenger, peace be upon him.
On what basis do I say this?
Based on the meaning of these same words.
The two main Arabic words for belief are imam and tasdiq – literally, to have belief or confidence and to affirm or acknowledge the truth.
To have a magnet is to put our trust in the one who is worthy of being trusted, and to have tasdiq is to see the truth when it appears in front of us.
The purer our belief, the more we put our trust in the right place, not the wrong place, and the more we are able to recognize truth and distinguish it from falsehood, regardless of how reasonable the falsehood may seem, and how strange the truth may seem.
The best example of this is Saidina Abu bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, who was nicknamed as-Siddiq, given his unhesitating statement of the Prophet’s Night Journey when it was told to him; a journey so seemingly ridiculous that idol worshippers thought they had found the ultimate proof they needed to convince the Prophet’s followers to abandon him.
What was Abu Bakr’s response when, mockingly, he was told cheerfully that Muhammad claimed that he had traveled to Jerusalem and returned in a single night?
He said, “If he has said it, then it must be true.”
He didn’t care what was being said, only who was saying it.
And the one who said it was as-Siddiq al-Amin – the truthful one who had never lied, the one who could be absolutely trusted in his words, states and actions.
The man who in his entire life had never told a lie and had never betrayed a trust.
The man whose every word was accepted even by his enemies – except when it came to matters of the deen – and to whom they entrusted their wealth even as they plotted their downfall.
Saidina Abu Bakr understood; And if we want to make sense of the world we live in and see which path to follow and which to avoid, which narrative to accept and which to reject, we must understand as well.
Not all fonts are created equal.
Take only from the people of Allah and the heirs of Rasuul, peace be upon him, and what they indicate.
And the rest… Take it carefully.
Don’t make it the basis of your understanding of what’s going on in the world. Most of these sources have a proven track record of being wrong, if not of outright falsehood and disinformation, what has been called fake news, either completely false or misleading through the application or omission of emphasis.
Allah says:
You who believe!
If someone who is not trustworthy comes to you with news, make sure first; lest you cause harm to someone through ignorance and then have to repent of what you did.
(Private Apartments, 49:6)
This aya, was revealed when a man reported that a group of people had left Islam and joined the enemy, but, instead of attacking them, the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, sent a group of trustworthy people to check if the information was correct.
He did not automatically believe what he had been told, especially given the source and that a group of Muslims were accused.
And they discovered that what the man had said was false.
These people continued to be Muslims.
We have to be careful.
We have to be discriminated against, and our default position in relation to other Muslims must be one of good thought.
We must be quick to believe the good and slow to believe the bad.
Another example of this is found in the story of slander against our mother, since she was one of the Ummahat al-mumini (mother of the believers) ‘A’ishah.
The lie was spread and instead of doing what the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) had done, when he received the information from the fasiq, a significant part of the believers spread it.
And the lie came to be accepted in some circles as truth, and it created such bad blood among the people of Madina that old wounds were reopened, old differences resurfaced, and the fitna again showed its horrible teeth.
Weapons were drawn and battle lines drawn and disaster was only averted by a revelation from al-Haqq:
Why did you not say when you heard it: It is not proper for us to talk about this?
Glory to You!
This is a huge slander.
(The Light, 24:16)
Allah made this situation happen in order to teach us something.
Do not accept words as they sound when their source is unknown or untrustworthy.
On the contrary, think the best of your Muslim brothers and consider what you have heard a lie unless and until proven otherwise.
What is happening with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman is a reflection of this situation.
From all directions we receive a narrative about who he is and what he has done to make us perceive him in a particular way.
And the propaganda offensive has been effective, even leading several Imams and groups of Muslims to propagate it in their missives and to their congregations instructing them, among other things, to boycott the Hajj.
Abandoning an obligation due to Allah in order to show one’s discontent with one of His creations.
They have taken the bait, fallen on the hook, been caught in their nets, and succumbed, but even if what is said were true, this would not justify their actions.
It would still be ghiba – eating the flesh of a Muslim brother.
Putting their trust in the wrong sources has led them down a dark path and away from the truth.
Allah says:
If you obey the majority of those on earth, they would lead you astray from the path of Allah; they follow nothing but suppositions, they only conjecture.
(The Flocks, 6:116)
As Muslims we are taught to support our Muslim brothers and sisters and to speak well of them, or to remain silent.
As the Prophet said, peace be upon him: Whoever believes in Allah and the Hereafter should speak good or be silent.
We don’t spread the bad things we hear about others, even if we know it’s true.
Ibn Sirin said: “If you hear something (bad) about your brother, look for an excuse for it. If you can’t find an excuse, then say to yourself, ‘I may have an excuse I don’t know.'” And even more so when it comes from sources that we know are not trustworthy.
Be very careful what you say and always keep the company of the truthful.
Allah says:
You who believe!
Fear Allah and speak rightly.
(The Allies, 33:70)
Who are the truthful?
They are those in whom the inner and the outer are in harmony.
That they do what they say and say they want to say it.
They are the people of Allah, the muttaqin and the dhakirin.
Listen to their words and base your understanding of the world on what they tell you.
Do this and you will be safe and see the world for what it is.
For you will see it not through the light of the sun, or the moon, or lampposts and lamps, but through the light of Allah and His people.
I would like to end the Khutba with a dua from the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, which is very important for us in the time of unimaginable falsehood and illusion in which we live, in which nothing is as it seems.
These times that the Prophet described to us when he said:
There will come a time of great confusion in which the words of liars will be believed and the truthful will be rejected, in which the disloyal will be trusted and not those who are trustworthy.
The dua is:
O Allah!
Show us the truth as truth and make it our rizq to follow it and show us falsehood as false and make it our rizq to abandon it.
Khutba delivered by Shaykh Habib Bewley in Cape Town on Friday, October 26, 2018.