Permissible Lying Rasul Allah (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said: “He who settles disagreements between people to bring about good or says something commendable is not a liar.” Umm Kulthum (radi Allahu anha) added: “I did not hear him permit untruth in anything people say, except for three things: war, settling disagreements, and a man talking with his wife or she with him (in smoothing over differences.)” [Sahih Muslim] This is an explicit statement that lying is sometimes permissible, scholars having established criteria defining what types of it are lawful. Imam Abu Hamid Ghazali says: “Speaking is a means to achieve objectives. If a praiseworthy aim is attainable through both telling the truth and lying, it is unlawful to accomplish through lying because there is no need for it…It becomes obligatory to lie if an obligatory deed cannot be achieved except by lying. When, for example, one is concealing a Muslim from an oppressor who asks where he is, it is obligatory to lie about his being hidden. Or when a person deposits an article with one for safekeeping and an oppressor wanting to appropriate it inquires about it, it is obligatory to lie about having concealed it, for if one informs him about the article and he then seizes it, one is financially liable to cover the article’s cost….” [Reliance of the Traveller by Ahmad ibn Naqib Al-Misri]
Posted on: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 08:29:29 +0000