The Ruling on Lying to Rulers to Bring Them Closer to the People
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner: There are those who say that it is permissible for a person to lie to the people in order to reconcile them with their rulers, even if this praise is false, such as saying that the government applies the Book and the Sunnah in every small and large matter.
The Shaykh: I say that lying is permissible in the cause of reconciliation if there is no other way to achieve reconciliation. Then, I condition this lying that it not be revealed over time to be a lie, because it will produce a reaction opposite to what the liar intended. The statement that a certain ruler rules by what Allah has revealed is contradicted by reality. Therefore, when one lies in order to bring the shepherd closer to the flock, the reality of this shepherd will contradict this attempted, claimed, and alleged reconciliation. The truth is that we today expand greatly, and very greatly, in applying some of the scientific jurisprudential rules. We expand greatly and fall into very serious legal prohibitions of this kind. I have not mentioned this before, and for the first time I am hearing such a question. This pleases our friend who is recording, because he is recording something new. I heard from him just now that he does not want repeated questions. So this is a question that you absolutely do not have on a tape.
The questioner: Thank you, by Allah, O Shaykh. Yes.
The Shaykh: I say that lying is permissible in the cause of reconciliation if there is no other way to achieve reconciliation. Then, I condition this lying that it not be revealed over time to be a lie, because it will produce a reaction opposite to what the liar intended. The statement that a certain ruler rules by what Allah has revealed is contradicted by reality. Therefore, when one lies in order to bring the shepherd closer to the flock, the reality of this shepherd will contradict this attempted, claimed, and alleged reconciliation. The truth is that we today expand greatly, and very greatly, in applying some of the scientific jurisprudential rules. We expand greatly and fall into very serious legal prohibitions of this kind. I have not mentioned this before, and for the first time I am hearing such a question. This pleases our friend who is recording, because he is recording something new. I heard from him just now that he does not want repeated questions. So this is a question that you absolutely do not have on a tape.
The questioner: Thank you, by Allah, O Shaykh. Yes.
Source
سلسلة الهدى والنور، المجلس 781 — d3watuna.com (13:19)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.