The Ruling on Ambiguity That Carries Two Meanings
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
The questioner asks: Is speaking in a way that carries two meanings, thereby misleading another person, considered lying?
Answer:
This is called ta'wil (figurative interpretation) or ambiguity, and they divided it into three categories. The first category is when a person is wronged and wants to use ambiguity to escape the injustice; this is permissible. The second category is when a person is the wrongdoer, seeking to take people's money or wrong people through ambiguity; this is not permissible. The third category is where there is no injustice to anyone, ambiguity that does not wrong anyone; this is a matter of scholarly disagreement among the scholars. Some prohibited it because it is a type of lying, and some permitted it because it does not harm anyone.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you
The questioner asks: Is speaking in a way that carries two meanings, thereby misleading another person, considered lying?
Answer:
This is called ta'wil (figurative interpretation) or ambiguity, and they divided it into three categories. The first category is when a person is wronged and wants to use ambiguity to escape the injustice; this is permissible. The second category is when a person is the wrongdoer, seeking to take people's money or wrong people through ambiguity; this is not permissible. The third category is where there is no injustice to anyone, ambiguity that does not wrong anyone; this is a matter of scholarly disagreement among the scholars. Some prohibited it because it is a type of lying, and some permitted it because it does not harm anyone.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you
Source
شرح كتاب الكبائر للإمام محمد بن عبد الوهاب، بداية من باب ما جاء في زعموا — islamhouse.com (51:40)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.