What is considered as Lying ?

[enoch]

:salam2:

I apologize for the randomness of the question that i am about to pose.
Is giving false information about your family members to a complete stranger considered lying? It is the month of Ramadhaan and i have really tried really hard to not utter anything that could be considered a lie and not even a white lie but when it comes to matters of family, as a defense mechanism I tend to blurt out information that are not remotely true before i am in conversation with a complete stranger?

Example ... i come out of the mosque and am greeted by a certain person who wants me to attend a certain program in the mosque itself but the problem is that he is a complete stranger to me. So he asks me questions about myself, like my name and what do I do ...fair enough ... then he goes personal asking where do i live and what does my family do for a living? Where is my brother and what is he doing , same question about my father and i cant help but lie because its private information. But after all said and done I feel really disgusted because he is a fellow muslim and i am not supposed to lie but then again he is a COMPLETE stranger and how can anyone disclose private information on the first go.

Again I apologize for the randomness.

 

[enoch]

Also added to the category would be : Is it considered lying if you are doing an act of Ibadaat (could be anything ranging from Tahajjud, or reading Quraan etc) and telling the person that you were doing something else to the person who asked you as to what you were doing all this time.

Previously such matters would not have bothered me because I do realise that if it came to matters about lying about Allah, Prophet or lying about keeping promises etc would be placed into the category of sinning but its the little things that were consider so petty is what is bothering me.

Another example would be telling someone a false name just on the basis that you have NEVER met the person and Allahu Alam he could be a potential kidnapper getting private information about you to hold as ransom etc.

Last scenario would be assuming someone asked you a question and you gave a true answer but the person misunderstood and took it for something else and you did not rectify him? Is that considered lying ?

Salaamz

Eagerly waiting for any replies

 

[online2023370]

assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabaraakaatu

How are you my friend ? Lying will simply mean that something is not true/factual or a false pretence ect. How at times of harb or struggle we are permitted not to divulge the plans of the muslims ect. Do we find ourselves in that type of situation ? Use discretion , Wallahu alam , wakafaa billahi wakeela .

 

[ahmed_indian]

instead of lying, i would have asked him why he wants to know so much about me or just smiled/told him that i have to go, etc, etc.

 

[MahyarEL-Prince]

Asaslamu alaikum, wa rahmatullahi wa barakatoh..
This is my personal fatwa (opinion) , take it how you want it , I am no shiekh but I am going to attempt to logically answer this, and also add a question I want to know personally.
I believe we should in all cases at all times avoid trying to lie. Yes if were forced to lie, (Life/death or persecution of some sort, then lieing is permissible and also reccommended)
But in the case of "What did you do yesterday?" We should avoid lieing, or for example lets say you go to work and you made it late, and your boss says "Where the hell were you!" I believe you can not lieing according to islam.

2 - When it comes to ibadah I believe ESSPECIALLY in this situation you should not lie...
if you did tahajud and someone asks you, I personalyl don't think it's right to say, I was sleeping, or I was eating.. WHy? because this is a form of worship it should not be something we are embarrassed about, in fact it will also be a reminder for the one who is asking the question am I wrong? We have to spread islam, even in small situations like that.
My advice to you, when you really don't want to answer a question like that, is ask the questioner why he's asking, or that your not comfertable answering these questions.. It may be difficult but it is better then lieing and Allahu aleem.

Now my question is that is it permissible to lie out of humility? um.. here's an example..
Someone says "how was your day?" and even though your little brother ate the whole fridge and you have no food for breakfast , you say "alhamdulillah, everythings fine, and you?"
Or should we tell the truth and say "everything is going bad, alhamdulillah"
Now i know in islam whining about your problems is really something to avoid, but that was a simple example, there are many things that happen in our everyday livves where we just tend to lie but not for the sole purpose of telling that lie, rather we just lie to not cause a dispute perhaps out of humility or politeness..
Allahu aleem.

 

[enoch]

Asaslamu alaikum, wa rahmatullahi wa barakatoh

First and foremost, Jazakallah for answering my questions

When it comes to ibadah I believe ESSPECIALLY in this situation you should not lie...
if you did tahajud and someone asks you, I personalyl don't think it's right to say, I was sleeping, or I was eating.. WHy? because this is a form of worship it should not be something we are embarrassed about, in fact it will also be a reminder for the one who is asking the question am I wrong? We have to spread islam, even in small situations like that.

The things is friend, that the intention behind saying that "I was sleeping" is not because I am embaressed about it, but more so worried about the fact that I dont want to give to my sawaab being wasted. Example, one should give charity in such a manner that the right hand does not know what the left hand has done and vice versa.
We are all aware that the slave who cries and prays to his Rab in the corner of his house is dearer in terms of worshipping that someone who does the same in public, therefore keeping that frame of mind, it was accidentally uttered that I was sleeping so as to not give away any rewards by disclosing something that is very cherished between Allah (swt) and His slave .... I also dont intend to reject your advice because I completely agree with you that we should never take any matter pass by when we have the chance to give Dawah ... Jazak'Allah...

I have been reading more and more on such a topic and I seriously am scared to death knowing what grave mistakes I have been making in terms of my speech that would be considered "very everyday normal situation"

If my muslim brothers and sisters can shed more light on such matter... I will be very grateful and may Allah (swt) reward you all for taking time and effort to solve and sort out the woes of a brother

 

[MahyarEL-Prince]

wa iyyak akhi
assalamu alaikum,
Yeah I now understand what you meant, sorry I took it the wrong way but that tends to happen when getting points across on a forum..
Anyways, I hear what you are trying to say, and sometimes yeah we don't want to act like we are boosting about our good deeds. This is definitely something to avoid..
But hear this out.. maybe it would be wrong, if you went to your friend and said "Hey what up? I just finished tahajjud 10 rakats not stop, what did you do all night? sleep?"
Lol that might be a little extreme but you know what I mean...
I remember when I was speaking to a friend of mine who happens to be very knowledgeable. We were speaking through msn messenger, and when salah would come I would always say "Salah time brb" and after a while I asked him , if I should say it's salah time, or should I just say , "sorry brb 20 min" And he told me it's perfectly fine to say it's time for salah, because this is something religious which is fardh and it's one's obligation...
Now if your friend asked you what were you doing? I believe it's fine to say I was doing tahajjad... but if you speak to him first you should avoid boasting about your taqwa.

Perhaps our other brothers/sisters will know better, Allahu aleem
salam aalaaikum

 

[MahyarEL-Prince]

Sorry, would anyone happen to know if lying breaks one's wudhu ?

maybe it depends on the seriousness of the lie?

 

[Killi_Feyzo]

i can't imagine that lying will break whudu
i never heard of a hadith reffering to
if this would be so then your fasting must break too if you lie
but allahuhalim

 

[Isra]

As salamo alaikome

Im not a scholar at all but I think I remember reading there is a hadith where our Prophet (SAW) said its better to keep silent rather than tell a lie. If anyone can find this hadith and post it that would be so helpful because I dont even remember where I read it now.

I think when this man began asking you questions that you felt were too personal to answer you should just tell him that plain and simple.......you could say something like I prefer not to answer these personal questions or you could even tell him you dont like to tell personal information about your family members. Either of these methods should not offend the stranger and he should be made to understand you are not willing or able to talk about such things that are personal to you. I think anyone can respect your privacy in this situation. This is my opinion anyway and may Allah forgive me if I have said anything wrong.....especially about the hadith because Im really not sure about it so forgive me if I am wrong.

 

[enoch]

Salaam Alaikum,

^^^ that is so true, the reason i end up lying would be because I dont want to be rude to the person, but I think I should be firm and take a stance to either be silent or state that I feel uncomfortable stating personal information.

Jazaka'Allah to all, you guys have no idea how much better I feel knowing there are people (even though anonymous) who would go ahead and help a brother in need.

I ma try to find out about whether lying breaks wudhu or not ?