You considered it insignificant, while in the sight of Allah it was tremendous.

The weight of things we rarely think twice about.

All praise is due to Allāh, the Lord of truth and certainty, who knows what is hidden and what is apparent, what is spoken openly and what is concealed within the hearts. He is the Most Wise in His commands and prohibitions, and among the greatest of His favours upon us is that He guided us to a religion built upon truthfulness and carefulness in speech.

May peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, Al-Ameen, the most truthful and trustworthy of creation, who taught us that a servant may utter a single word without giving it much thought, only for it to carry him to ruin, and who instructed us that whoever believes in Allāh and the Last Day should speak good or remain silent.

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We live in a time where ‘‘news’’ reaches us before facts. Rarely has it been easier to speak, and perhaps rarely has it been more dangerous. In a world where every person has a platform and every happening attracts countless voices, the Islamic command to verify before speaking becomes a safeguard for our faith, our communities, and our standing before Allāh.

The Prophet ﷺ described a time in which truth itself would become difficult to recognize. He said, in a hadith narrated by Abu Hurayrah:

«سَيَأْتِي عَلَى النَّاسِ سَنَوَاتٌ خَدَّاعَاتٌ، يُصَدَّقُ فِيهَا الْكَاذِبُ، وَيُكَذَّبُ فِيهَا الصَّادِقُ، وَيُؤْتَمَنُ فِيهَا الْخَائِنُ، وَيُخَوَّنُ فِيهَا الْأَمِينُ، وَيَنْطِقُ فِيهَا الرُّوَيْبِضَةُ» قِيلَ: وَمَا الرُّوَيْبِضَةُ؟ قَالَ: «الرَّجُلُ التَّافِهُ يَتَكَلَّمُ فِي أَمْرِ الْعَامَّةِ»

“Before the Hour, there will come upon the people years of deception in which the liar will be believed and the truthful person will be considered a liar; the treacherous person will be trusted and the trustworthy person will be considered treacherous; and the Ruwaybidah will speak.” It was asked:

“Who are the Ruwaybidah?” He replied:

“The insignificant foolish person who speaks concerning the affairs of the public.”

It is difficult to hear this narration without seeing reflections of our own time. Everyone has a platform. Everyone has an audience. Everyone has an opinion. More importantly, everyone feels compelled to share it. We have somehow convinced ourselves that because we can speak, we should speak. But Islam teaches something very different that we don’t pay attention to today: verify before you act, before you judge, and verify before you speak.

Allah says in Surah al-Hujurat:

…يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِنْ جَاءَكُمْ فَاسِقٌ بِنَبَإٍ فَتَبَيَّنُوا

“O you who believe, if a sinful person comes to you with news, then verify it.”

The verse continues by explaining why:

أَنْ تُصِيبُوا قَوْمًا بِجَهَالَةٍ فَتُصْبِحُوا عَلَىٰ مَا فَعَلْتُمْ نَادِمِينَ

“Lest you harm people out of ignorance and then become regretful for what you have done.”

I find it remarkable that Allah does not merely warn us against lying. He warns us against acting upon information we have not verified. The harm caused by an unverified report can be just as devastating as a deliberate lie.

Sometimes we think the greatest sins of the tongue are backbiting, slander, and foul speech. They certainly are among them. But how often do we consider the damage caused by simply amplifying something we never bothered to verify?

Perhaps one of the defining features of our age is how effortlessly (false) information travels. And the frightening part is that many of us do not feel responsible for what we share. We assume that because we did not originate the post, we bear no blame for spreading it.

“I am only reposting what I saw.” 🤷🏼‍♂️

The Prophet ﷺ warned us about years in which truth and falsehood would become confused, and truth be told, the incentive structure of social media rewards the sensational far more than it rewards the truthful. The person who says, “I am not sure; let me verify first,” rarely goes viral. The person who has the most dramatic reaction often does.

Today, people have turned matters of national concern into sources of impressions and engagement. But they are only one part of the problem. The greater tragedy is how eagerly many of us assist them. We repost/reshare things without verifying them. Someone cooks up a bait post, and because they bank on the tense emotions we carry around, we quickly fill the comment section with outrage before establishing whether the claim itself is true.

A Muslim is not meant to be a passive conduit through which information flows unchecked! Before we press “share” on anything that comes our way, we should ask ourselves: Is it true? Do I trust the source? What evidence supports it? What harm could come from spreading it if it turns out to be false?

These questions may seem small, but LIVES can be affected by our failure to ask them. The person who started the lie may bear a sin, but everyone who helped carry it forward shares in its consequences.

The story of our mother Aa’ishah رضي الله عنها serves as one of the clearest examples of this. The slander against her began with the hypocrites, but it spread because others repeated what they heard. Allah describes the incident in a way that deeply resonates with this here discussion:

وَتَقُولُونَ بِأَفْوَاهِكُمْ مَا لَيْسَ لَكُمْ بِهِ عِلْمٌ

“You were saying with your mouths that of which you had no knowledge.”

Then comes the verse that should make every Muslim pause before forwarding a message or sharing a post:

وَتَحْسَبُونَهُ هَيِّنًا وَهُوَ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ عَظِيمٌ

“You considered it insignificant, while in the sight of Allah it was tremendous.”

How many things do we consider insignificant today? Go through your timeline and your comments. Reminisce on the ones you reshared on WhatsApp that were too late to take back when it was later tagged false reporting. It took you two seconds but in the sight of Allah, it carried heavy consequence.

And here is a home truth you must take to the chest…

There are matters happening across the world that you do not fully understand. There are disputes between people whose circumstances you do not know. There are conflicts where the truth is buried beneath competing narratives. Not every issue requires your opinion.

Bye-Line

The older I get, the less impressed I am by people who always have something to say. I now find myself admiring those who weigh their words before uttering them and possess the humility to say, “I don’t know” when knowledge escapes them.

As I write these words, I am reminding myself before anyone else. There are assumptions I have accepted too easily and words I wish I had never spoken. The next time we encounter a rumour or feel compelled to comment on a matter we scarcely understand, perhaps we should pause and ask a simple question: Do I know this to be true? That little moment of hesitation may spare someone else’s honour, and perhaps, by the mercy of Allāh, safeguard our own as well.