Examining the issue of the Prophet Muhammad allowing Muslims to lie

 

By Sami Zaatari

 

 

 

 

One of the most common claims thrown against Muslims is that the prophet Muhammad allowed Muslims to lie. Christians always like to go around claiming that Muslims are allowed to lie, and they often make these claims on their websites and sermons.

 

The Christians are guilty of intentionally distorting what the prophet Muhammad really said, since when we look at what the prophet said, it is nothing near the claims the Christians are making.

 

Now it must be said, that lying is forbidden in Islam, however so, UNDER 3 OCCASIONS, it is not. This point must be made crystal clear, that it is only under 3 specific circumstances in which a Muslim is allowed to lie, not like the Christian tries to make it seem, that Muslims are always allowed to lie.

 

These three specific circumstances are as follows:

 

Sahih MuslimBook 032, Number 6303:

 

Humaid b. 'Abd al-Rahman b. 'Auf reported that his mother Umm Kulthum daughter of 'Uqba b. Abu Mu'ait, and she was one amongst the first emigrants who pledged allegiance to Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him), as saying that she heard Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: A liar is not one who tries to bring reconciliation amongst people and speaks good (in order to avert dispute), or he conveys good. Ibn Shihab said he did not hear that exemption was granted in anything what the people speak as lie but in three cases: in battle, for bringing reconciliation amongst persons and the narration of the words of the husband to his wife, and the narration of the words of a wife to her husband (in a twisted form in order to bring reconciliation between them).

 

So as you can see, Muslims are allowed to only lie during battle, essentially in war. Muslims are allowed to lie in order to bring peace between two people, and also when a wife and husband are fighting with each other and they lie to bring about an end to their problems.

 

As you can see, there is nothing wrong or extreme about that now is there? During war, many people will lie; this is how war is, if an enemy comes to you asking you where you're other soldiers are, would you tell him? Off course not, and if you were forced into giving the enemy army some information, you would give him false information. This is something very common during wars, and is practiced by every single army and every practicing soldier yet no one says they are commiting a crime or something bad! How ironic American Marines who kill, rape, and bomb innocent Iraqis are hailed as heroes by many Christians in the west yet they have a problem with a command from the Prophet Muhammad allowing people to lie in war!

 

Also How  more ironic it is, that Americans have no problems with the CIA and US military being taught on how to give false information to enemies during war, and see it as something very normal and okay, yet when Islam permits the same type of action, the Christian goes all crazy shouting out evil! Such double standards simply reflect the low character of such Christians, and I am ONLY referring to those Christians who use these double standards.  

 

Any sane rational person would lie during war to save yourself, or your comrades, and only a fool would say this is something wrong.

 

The second circumstance, in which a person is allowed to lie, is when you want to bring peace between 2 people. Again, does this seem like something evil? If two of your best friends were fighting, and the only way to bring a peace between both of them was to make something up, would you not do it? Off course you would, and many of you have done so.

 

This is something very normal, and logical, and this is something any person would do. Your intention is not to cause problems; rather your intention is to cause good and peace, only a fool would argue saying to lie to make peace is bad. If a lie could bring peace and end war, or blood-shed, or violence, would you not lie to end it and bring the peace? Only an idiot would say no.

 

The third circumstance of when it's permissible to lie is when you are trying to fix things up between your wife or husband. Again, is this something wrong or evil? The majority of married people have lied to each other to fix things up, and this is a FACT, yet no one has a problem with it or cries out evil! Yet when Islam allows such a rational act, the Christians go mad. Remember, the intention of this is something good, not to bring evil, you are doing this to fix your marriage, and to reconcile things, you are not doing this to do bad things.

 

Now it must be said, Muslims cannot use this hadith to always lie to their husbands and wives intentionally, no, it is only when your intention is to really fix things up, then you can commit the lie. You cannot commit the lie to simply help yourself, and then go back to doing bad things, and lie again, and play around. This is not how it goes.

 

So as you can see, Islam only allows you to lie under special circumstances, and as we saw, there is nothing evil about these circumstances, and only a fool would argue that this is something bad and evil.

 

So in conclusion, Christians should stop claiming that Muslims are allowed to lie for fun or whenever they feel like, that is something false and is an intentional lie and a distortion of the facts. Muslims are only allowed to lie under 3 specific circumstances, and as you can see, it is something very natural to lie in these 3 specific circumstances, and it must be done with a good intention, to save your life or the life of your fellow soldiers and army.

 

And Allah Knows Best!

 

www.muslim-responses.com