Beware of rumours at times of crisis

There are some writers, especially on the Internet, who spread news
without verifying it, which is confusing theMuslims and making them
despair, such as the claim that one of theMuslim cities has fallen, or
that one of their leaders has been killed, and other reports which
lead to despair and weakening of morale… All of that is without any
proof or certainty that the news is true… Some of them even write at
the end of their articles, "This is what I have heard but I am not
sure whether the report is true"!
What is your advice to these people?.
Praise be to Allaah.
Undoubtedly at times of tribulation there is a lot of propaganda and
excitement, hence the role of rumours.
It is well known that verifying news is required according to
sharee'ah, because Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):
"O you who believe! If a Faasiq (liar — evil person) comes to you with
any news, verify it, lest you should harm people in ignorance, and
afterwards you become regretful for what you have done"
[al-Hujuraat 49:6]
The Lawgiver issued a stern warning against passing on all that one
hears. It was narrated that Hafs ibn 'Aasim said:The Messenger of
Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: "It is enough
lying for a man to speak of everything that he hears." Narrated by
Muslim in al-Muqaddimah, 6; Saheeh al-Jaami, 4482.
It was narrated from AbuHurayrah that the Prophet (peace and blessings
of Allaah be upon him) said: "It is enough sin for a man to speak of
everything that he hears." Al-Silsilah al-Saheehah, 2025.
Al-Nawawi said: Usually a person hears truth andlies, so if he speaks
of everything that he hears, he is lying by telling of things that did
not happen, and lying byspeaking of something other than the way it
happened; and he does not have to do that deliberately (in order to be
regarded as telling lies).
It was narrated that al-Mugheerah ibn Shu'bah said: The Prophet (peace
and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: "Allaah has forbidden you
to disobey your mothers, tobury your daughters alive, to not pay the
rights of others and to beg from others. And He dislikes gossip for
you, asking too many questions, and wasting money." Narrated by
al-Bukhaari, 2231.
Al-Haafiz ibn Hajar said:
With regard to the words 'and He dislikes gossip [qeela wa qaala –
lit. it was said and he said] for you' al-Muhibb al-Tabari said, there
are three points of view as to the meaning of this hadeeth:
1 – That it indicates that it is makrooh (disliked) to speak too much,
because it leads to mistakes.
2 – That it refers to wanting to pass on whatpeople say and looking
for that in order to tell others of it, so that one can say, "So and
so said such and such, and Such and such was said…" Theprohibition on
this is either a rebuke for doing too much of it or it refers to a
particular type of talk, which the person spoken of dislikes to have
mentioned.
3 – That it refers to narrating differences of opinion concerning
religious matters, such as saying, "This one said such and such and
that one said such and such." The reason why this is disliked is that
speaking of such matters may leadto mistakes. This applies especially
to those who transmit such views without verifying them, merely
imitating those whom they hear withoutexercising any caution. I say:
this is supported by the saheeh hadeeth, "It is enough sin for a man
to speak of everything that he hears." (narratedby Muslim).
It was narrated that Abu Qalaabah said: Abu Mas'ood said to Abu
'Abd-Allaah, or Abu 'Abd-Allaah said to Abu Mas'ood: What did you hear
the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him)
say about saying "they say…"?
He said: I heard the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of
Allaah be upon him) say: "How bad it is for a man to keep saying,
'They say…'. " al-Silsilah al-Saheehah, 866.
Al-'Azeemabaadi said: This means, it is a bad way to reach one's
objective, by saying, 'they say…'. Saying 'they say…' is akin to
conjecture, i.e., the worst habit of a man is to use the phrase 'they
say' to serve his purposes, so he tells of something, merely repeating
what others have said without verifying it, and thus he transmits lies
… this was the view of al-Manaawi.
Hence our righteous forebears were keen to establish proof and
werewary of rumours.
'Umar (may Allaah be pleased with him) said: "Beware of fitnah, for a
word at the time of fitnah could be as devastating as the sword."
History shows us the danger of rumours when they spread among the
ummah. There follow some examples of that:
1 – When the Sahaabah migrated from Makkah to Ethiopia, they were
safe, but then a rumour spread that the kuffaar of Quraysh in Makkah
had become Muslims, so some of the Sahaabah left Ethiopia and
travelled until they reached Makkah, where they found that the report
was not true, and they met with persecution at the handsof Quraysh.
All of that happened because of rumours.
2 – During the Battle of Uhud, when Mus'ab ibn 'Umayr was killed,
there was a rumour that it wasthe Messenger of Allaah (peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him) who had been killed, so the army of
Islam withdrew because of a rumour, and some of them fled to Madeenah
and some stopped fighting.
3 – There was the rumour of the slander incident (al-ifk), when the
pure and innocent 'Aa'ishah was accused of immoral conduct, which led
to the distress felt by the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings
of Allaah be upon him) and the Muslims with him. Allof that was
because of rumours.
So what is the proper shar'i method of dealingwith news?
There are ways of dealing with news which we will look at in brief:
1 – Deliberation
The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said:
"Deliberation is from Allaah and haste is from the Shaytaan."
Al-Silsilahal-Saheehah, 1795.
The one who deliberatesmay meet some of his needs whilst the one who
is hasty may slip.
2 – Verifying news
Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):
"O you who believe! If a Faasiq (liar — evil person) comes to you with
any news, verify it, lest you should harm people in ignorance, and
afterwards you become regretful for what you have done"
[al-Hujuraat 49:6]
The reason why this verse was revealed:
The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) sent al-Waleed
ibn 'Uqbah ibn Abi Mu'eet to Banu al-Mustaliq, to collect thezakaah
from them. When news of that reached them they rejoiced, and they came
out to meet the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be
upon him). When al-Waleed heard that they had come out to meet him, he
went back to the Messenger ofAllaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be
upon him) and said, "O Messenger of Allaah, Banu al-Mustaliq have
withheld the zakaah."
The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him)
became very angry at that, and whilst he was thinking of launching a
campaign against them, the delegation came to him and said, "O
Messenger of Allaah, we were told that your envoy returned after
coming only half way, and we were afraid that he came back because he
received a message from you saying that youwere angry with us. We seek
refuge with Allaah from the anger of Allaah and the anger of His
Messenger."
Then Allaah excused them in His Book and revealed the words
(interpretation of the meaning):
"O you who believe! If a Faasiq (liar — evil person) comes to you with
any news, verify it, lest you should harm people in ignorance, and
afterwards you become regretful for what you have done"
[al-Hujuraat 49:6]
See: al-Silsilah al-Saheehah, 3085.
What is meant by verifying is making the effort to find out the truth
of the matter, so asto establish whether thiscan be proven or not.
Verifying means making certain of the truth of the report and its circumstances.
Al-Hasan al-Basri said: "The believer reserves judgement until the
matter is proven."
Finally: we advise everyone to verify matters and not to rush to pass
on news until they are sure that it is true, even if the news is good
news, because if it becomes apparent that the one who passed it on is
mistaken, he will lose credibility before the people… and anyonewho
bears a grudge towards him will use it against him. May Allaah help us
all to do that which He loves and which pleases Him.
And Allaah knows best.