Question #09-11-03
"I am concerned about
emails that Muslims are sending out to "everyone
on their lists." It seems that a lot of them are
not really based on the teachings of Islam, that is
the Quran and authentic hadeeths. What should we do?"
(I am including a sample that just came to me and would
like for you to confirm or refute the contents of the
"Dream of Shaykh Ahmed in Madinah."
re: Fowarding Emails That
LIE About Allah & His Messenger (peace be upon him)
In a message dated 9/14/2003
6:14:55 PM Pacific Daylight Time, Muslim sent this
email out:
DONT DELETE!
IF YOUR A MUSLIM! PLEASE READ THIS!
: (This
is NOT true - do not believe it; do not forward it;
warn anyone about this LIE!)
From Madina Sheikh Ahmed
has sent this news. On a Friday Sheikh Ahmed fell asleep
reading the Quraan. Then he dreamt the Prophet
Muhammed (saw) standing in front of him and saying that in one
week seven thousand people died but not even one was a true Muslim.
None did what ALLAH wanted. He also said now is a bad time. These days
Wives dont look after their Husbands, Girls go
round without being covered they do not respect
parents or others, Rich do not look after the
poor, they do not give gifts or money or do not
give fulfil zakaat.
He also said to Sheikh Ahmed make people understand to give zakaat, To
do prayer and to keep fast. The day of judgement
is near. When There is a single star in the sky,
straight away the path of forgiveness will close.
The writing in the Quraan will disappear (vanish).
The Sun will lower itself with earth.
The Prophet said
whoever reads this
news to someone else, " I WILL ON THE DAY OF JUDGEMENT MAKE HIM A PLACE
IN PARADISE, AND IF SOMEONE DOES NOT BELIEVE THIS NEWS TO BE TRUE THEY
WILL BE BANISHED FROM PARADISE"
: (NOT TRUE - FEAR ALLAH)
If a
poor person gives out this news to other people
his/her good wish will come true.
: (NOT TRUE - Whoever even repeats this or sends it to others -
could go to HELL - Forever - DO NOT DO IT - FEAR ALLAH)
Sheikh Ahmed said if
this is not true then my death will be of a Non-Muslim. The Prophet said "KEEP FAST, DO PRAYERS,
GIVE ZAKAAT AND GIVE KINDNESS TO THE POOR"
Whoever Forwards This will get his/her reward in three days.
: (NOT TRUE - Whoever even repeats this or sends it to others -
could go to HELL - Forever - DO NOT DO IT - FEAR ALLAH)
One Person forward it to 40 people
he had 8,000 thousand, take prophit in his buisness.
One Person did not believe this news and his son died.
: (NOT TRUE - what kind of nonsense is this? FEAR ALLAH)
One kept Saying he
will forward it today, tomorrow but never forward
this news he died as well.
:
NOT
TRUE - Allah Subhannad wa Ta'ala tells us in the Quran
that "Every soul shall taste death." The
time and date of our death is recorded with Allah
befofre He ever created us. There is no way that Allah
kills us for not forwarding email - especially LIES
like this.)
PLEASE DO NOT THINK THIS IS NOT TRUE.
: (NOT TRUE - FEAR ALLAH)
PLEASE FORWARD
THIS TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE!
: (NOT TRUE - Whoever even repeats this or sends it to others -
could go to HELL - Forever - DO NOT DO IT - FEAR ALLAH)
Obviously,
no Muslim should forward this or anything like it. For
the clear hadeeth narrated by our prophet Muhammad,
peace be upon him, says, "Whoever attributes to
me something that I did not say, let him reserve his
seat in the Hell-Fire."
How do you
deal with something like this? Same as any other situation.
We keep calm, think things through and then patiently
present the correct information to the best of our abilbities,
inshallah. Let us consider the following way to present
ourselves and Islam in the proper light to the people.
Thank
you for writing to me. I would like to reply back
to you regarding your recent letter. But, before we
begin let us remember some very important points to
keep in mind:
1.
As Muslims we cannot lie about anything, especially
about our religion.
2. We can always prove what our religion teaches because
we have original recorded sources of our religion:
A) The Quran
B) Teachings of Muhammad.
This is a very unique part of Islam, not available
in any other ancient religions.
3. Sometimes "questions" contain misinformation.
We must qualify what it is that someone is saying
against what they are implying.
4. If you find the answer to your question makes you
say, "I didn't know that" or "This
is good" are you ready to worship your God by
submitting your choices to His Will?
This what Islam is really all about.
The
most important subject is the worship of Almighty
God, without any partners or associates or "gods"
besides Almighty God.
Having
stated our intentions, we now go to the answer:
Bismillah Rahman Raheem - Answer #03-09-11 3:45
P
Thank you for asking about these types of emails and this one (Dream
of Shaykh Ahmad) and for putting such confidence in
our ability to be able to provide answers.
Actually,
we have written on this subject a number of times.
It is not permissable according to Islam, to forward
these types of emails without first verifying and
confirming the content, especially when there is
mention of "the prophet, peace be upon
him, said . . ", nor to mention them,
nor to forward emails about them.
This is not the proper way to handle the situation.
In fact, this is exactly what the enemies of Islam
want us to do. In many cases they pretend to be
Muslims or friends of Islam who are supposedly "helping
Islam and the Muslims."
To
those who are not familiar with some of the basics
of dawah in Islam, these may not seem like a big
problem. However, it is never acceptable in Islam
to try to accomplish some good by doing something
haram (forbidden). It is never, ever possible to
spread Islam by lying or using deceptive practices.
Thank
you again for writing to me, and I pray to Allah
for you and me and everyone to be guided by Allah
to the very best of this life and the very best
of the Next Life, ameen.
Why
would anyone do such a thing?
Good
question.
Because
of Muslims promoting the wrong message.
Think
about this: Muslims continually send out messages
like the one that you just sent and then they tell everyone
to do the same thing. Right?
Remember
that the devil only has ONE GOAL - to put as many of
the sons of Adam in the HellFire as he can. That is
it. He does not really care how they get there.And it
works - for the enemy.
Shayton
(the devil) knows that most Muslims are ignorant of
their religion and think that they know enough that
they don't need to ask anyone about what they are doing.
Or else, he counts on the fact that they will consider
that it looks like something that will "help" the ummah
(Muslim community) to do good deeds, even if it is a
"little white lie."
But
keep in mind that by lying about what our prophet, peace
be upon him, says (whether in a hadeeth or a dream by
some mystic shaykh, supposedly in Madinah), it is still
a lie and could cause the one who sends it on to others
to go to HELL, FOREVER.
And
it is working!
We
must discourage this practice of just "forwarding this
to everyone on your list." You see many Muslims today
do not really know a lot about Islam and they are easily
confused by these people who know how to make up things
to fool us or mistranslate or misrepresent the
verses of the Quran and the hadeeth of the prophet,
peace be upon him. As a result I have a number of emails
coming to me from different countries wherein the youth
are asking me about things that have really messed them
up, all of it stemming from these teachings.
For
the above reasons you can see why it is haram to forward
these emails?
What
should we do?
Good
question:
First,
when you receive email with any statements about
dreams or visions - DO NOT FORWARD IT TO EVERYONE
ON YOUR LIST.
Second,
send a copy to our office here in Washington - email:
AskIslam@aol.com
or yusuf@99islam.com
Or Fax it to us: (202) 436-9640
Or Mail it through 'snail mail' at:
Ask Islam
Post Office Box 6815
Alexandria, VA. 22306
Third,
begin to visit and promote the websites that are dealing
with the real issues of being a Muslim in this place
in these times. This is critical.
Finally,
DO COPY & EMAIL this to everyone ON YOUR LIST! |