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- Qatada -
04-01-2007, 11:06 AM
:salamext:

White Lie and April Fools’ Day


Question:

As-salamu `alaykum. What is your opinion concerning what we call April Fools’ Day? Is it permissible to propagate lies to accommodate customs? Is there a difference between a white lie and a black lie? Jazakum Allah khayran.


Answer:

Wa `alaykum As-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.


Dear questioner, we would like to thank you for the great confidence you place in us, and we implore Allah, the Almighty to help us serve His cause and render our work for His Sake alone.


According to the dictionary, April Fools’ Day is a day for practical jokes, but in many places those jokes take the form of lies.

Islam condemns lying. Good people in general consider it a vice. If lying is originally forbidden, then April Fools’ would consequently be forbidden because of the unwarranted dismay and chagrin it causes, even if it is for just one hour. It plays with people’s trust, and is a pure emulation of vice.


In this regard the eminent scholar Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi states:

Telling lies is bad conduct. It is not proper for righteous people and true believers; rather, it is a sign of hypocrisy, as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “The hypocrite has three characteristics: he tells lies, breaks his promise, and breaches the trust” (Al-Bukhari and Muslim).

The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) warned against lying for the purpose of entertaining people. He said, “Woe on anyone who speaks to entertain the people by lying, woe on him, woe on him…” (Abu Dawud, At-Tirmidhi, and An-Nasa’i).


The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) also said, “One is not considered a true believer till he abandons lying for fun and arguing even if he was telling the truth” (Ahmad and At-Tabarani). Several Prophetic hadiths warned the Muslims against frightening others seriously or jokingly. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is reported to have said, “It is not permissible for anyone to frighten a Muslim” (Abu Dawud).


Consequently, lying is forbidden in any form, and on this occasion (April Fools’ Day) it is forbidden for four reasons:


1. The prohibition of lying which is confirmed by the Qur’an and the Sunnah,

2. The unwarranted grief or fear it may bring on a person or his entire family, even if only for one hour,

3. The betrayal of trust it entails,

4. The emulation of a silly custom that is not ours, that of lying.

Sometimes the idea of telling a lie on this day may be obnoxious to the whole society, not only to a person.
Moreover, Sheikh `Atiyyah Saqr, former head of Al-Azhar Fatwa Committee, adds:

It is agreed upon by all religions and sound minds that truthfulness is a virtue and lying is a vice. To tell the truth, your words should reflect reality; to tell a lie is to contradict what you are actually saying or doing. The worst kind of lying in sayings is perjury and in deeds it is hypocrisy.

Lying is forbidden unless it is for necessity. In that case, the principle “necessity makes the unlawful permissible” applies. Necessity has to be evaluated and used when no other option is available. Some of these acceptable lies is what we call connotation, a word carrying a double meaning. The Muslim may use the positive not the negative interpretation of the word.


It was reported that lying was legitimatized to benefit (someone or something), not to impair (the same). The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “A person who reconciles between two people and says good things, even if it is not true, is not a liar” (Al-Bukhari and Muslim). Umm Kulthum bint `Uqbah also said, in an addition to the hadith, “I never heard the Prophet permitting lying except in three cases: during war, to reconcile between two belligerent parties, the usual talk between the spouses.” What is meant by this talk is love talk to relieve the sufferings of life.

Related Questions

- Lying Is Not a Trait of the Muslim

- Can Allah Forgive Those who Lie and Cheat?

- Lying Jokingly

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AvarAllahNoor
04-01-2007, 11:16 AM
I've heard you can lie in order to bring others to Islam is this true?
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Malaikah
04-01-2007, 11:22 AM
^I have never heard of that before, what kind of lie do you mean?
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- Qatada -
04-01-2007, 11:28 AM
format_quote Originally Posted by AvarAllahNoor
I've heard you can lie in order to bring others to Islam is this true?

You hear alot of things, but why not verify the persons sources and ask them first?

Why should we lie to someone to bring them to islaam if our only purpose is to convey the message? And how are we conveying the message if we're lying?
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AvarAllahNoor
04-01-2007, 11:33 AM
format_quote Originally Posted by Fi_Sabilillah
You hear alot of things, but why not verify the persons sources and ask them first?

Why should we lie to someone to bring them to islaam if our only purpose is to convey the message? And how are we conveying the message if we're lying?
Well the reason I mentioned it without giving the reason away because I was avoiding a conflict. Hmmm....

I know it's not allowed, but these few misguided people seem to think it is.
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princessz
03-30-2008, 04:52 PM
:sl:
I got something as a email relating to this, as the origin of April's fool.

With regards to “April Fool” (in Arabic: Kithbat Neesaan, or the lies of April), the origin of this lying is not known for sure. There are differing views concerning this:

Some of them said that it developed from the celebrations of spring at the equinox on March 21.

Some of them said that this innovation appeared in France in 1564 CE, after the introduction of a new calendar, when a person who had refused to accept the new calendar became the victim of some people who had subjected him to embarrassment and made fun of him, so he became a laughing-stock for others.

Some of them said that this innovation goes back to ancient times and the pagan celebrations connected to a specific date at the beginning of spring, so this is the remnant of pagan rituals. It was said that hunting in some countries was unsuccessful during the first days of the hunt. This was the origin of these lies which are made up on the first day of April.

The Europeans call “April Fool” le poisson d’avril (lit. “April fish”). The reason for this is that the sun moves from the zodiacal house of Pisces to the next house, or because the word poisson, which means fish, is a distortion of the word passion, which means suffering, “so it is a symbol of the suffering endured by Jesus” (peace be upon him), according to the claims of the Christians; and they claim that this happened in the first week of April.

Some of the disbelievers call this day ‘April Fools’ Day’, as it is known to the English. That is because of the lies that they tell so that those who hear them might believe them and thus become a victim for those who are making fun of him.

The first mention of April Fool in the English language was in a magazine known as ‘Dreck Magazine’. On the second day of April in 1698 CE, this magazine mentioned that a number of people were invited to come and watch the washing of black people in the Tower of London on the morning of the first day of April.

One of the most famous incidents that happened in Europe on April 1st was when the English newspaper, the ‘Evening Star’, announced in March 1746 CE that the following day – April 1st – that there would be an parade of donkeys in Islington, in London, England. The people rushed to see these animals and there was a huge crowd. They continued waiting and when they got tired of waiting, they asked about when the parade would be. They did not find anything, then they realised that they had come to make an exhibition of themselves, as if they were the donkeys!

‘Aasim Ibn ‘Abdullaah Al-Qurawayti wrote about the origin of these lies, saying: “Many of us celebrate what is known as April fool or, if it is translated literally, the “trick of April”. But how much do we know of the bitter secret behind this day?

When the Muslims ruled Spain, approximately one thousand years ago, they were a force that could not be destroyed. The western Christians wished that they could wipe Islaam from the face of the earth; and they succeeded to some extent. They tried to limit the spread of Islaam in Spain and to put an end to it, but they did not succeed. They tried numerous times and never succeeded. After that, the disbelievers sent their spies to Spain to study and find out the secret of the Muslims’ strength which could not be defeated. They discovered that adhering to taqwa, or piety or consciousness of Allaah, was the reason.

When the Christians discovered the secret of the Muslims’ strength, they started to think of strategies to break this strength. On this basis they began to send wine and cigars to Spain for free.

This tactic on the part of the west produced results, and the faith of the Muslims began to weaken, especially among the young generation in Spain. The result of that was that the western Catholic Christians subdued the whole of Spain and put an end to the Muslim rule of that land which had lasted for more than eight hundred years. The last stronghold of the Muslims, in Grenada, fell on April 1st; hence they considered this to be the “trick of April.”

From that year until the present, they celebrate this day and consider the Muslims to be fools. They do not regard only the army at Granada to be fools who are easily deceived; rather they apply that to the entire Muslim Ummah. It is ignorant of us to join in these celebrations, and when we imitate them blindly in implementing this evil idea, this is a kind of blind imitation which confirms the foolishness of some of us in following them. Once we know the reason for this celebration, how can we celebrate our defeat?

After knowing this reality, let us make a promise to ourselves never to celebrate this day. We have to learn from the Spanish and adhere to the reality of Islaam and never allow our faith to be weakened again.”

I say: it does not matter what the origins of April fool are. What is more important is to know the Islamic ruling regarding lying on this day, which we are sure, did not exist during the first and best generations of Islam. It did not come from the Muslims, but rather from their enemies.

The things that happen on April Fools’ Day are many. Some people have been told that their child or spouse or someone who is dear to them has died, and unable to bear this shock, they have died. Some have been told that they are being laid off, or that there has been a fire or an accident in which their family has been killed, so they suffer paralysis or heart attacks, or similar afflictions.

Some people have been told about their wives, that they have been seen with other men, and this has led them to kill or divorce their wives.

There are the endless stories and incidents that we hear of, all of which are lies which are forbidden in Islaam and unacceptable to common sense or honest chivalry.

We have seen how Islaam forbids lying even in jest, and it forbids frightening a Muslim whether in seriousness or in jest, in words or in actions. This is the law of Allaah in which is wisdom and care for people’s circumstances.

This is the link http://www.alminbar.com/khutbaheng/9012.htm
Does anyone know if this is true?
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Danah
03-30-2008, 05:13 PM
jazaki Allah khair sis for sharing

actually this the first time I know about the reason of april's fool and I am surprised to know it as well.

anyways I dont like celebrating in this (stupid) fool becuse it is just imitating the non-muslims and there is no point of doing so
jazaki allah khair for the sharing again
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------
03-30-2008, 05:34 PM
:salamext:

April Fool already been answered properly here:

http://www.islamicboard.com/miscella...fools-day.html
Reply

Woodrow
03-30-2008, 06:17 PM
format_quote Originally Posted by AhLÄÄM
:salamext:

April Fool already been answered properly here:

http://www.islamicboard.com/miscella...fools-day.html
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