Warning Against Rumors and Lying About Scholars

The questioner:
Your Eminence the Shaykh! In this time,

The Shaykh:
As for the one who does not transgress against the Muslims, one prays for his guidance, even if he is a disbeliever. O Allah, guide them. O Allah, turn them back to the truth. It was said to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that the tribe of Daws refused to submit to Islam. He said: So Allah guided them, and they submitted to Islam and came.

The questioner:
In this time, the spreaders of fear and the investigators have multiplied.

The Shaykh:
Yes, yes, yes. In this time, they have multiplied.

The questioner:
Yes. The spreaders of fear and the misleaders. The path of truth is [obstructed] by fabricating statements and opinions about some scholars, or lying about them here and there, much of which is sowing and shaking the trust in our scholars (may Allah preserve them) in conveying this religion. I hope Your Eminence will address a word to these leaders

Another questioner:
and turning back to Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He.

The questioner:
And to the lack of cohesion of the paths supporting the unity of the community and the division of the word?

The Shaykh:
We have referred to this previously. It is obligatory for students of knowledge and the general public to be wary of harmful words and defective transmissions, for liars are numerous regarding scholars and rulers alike, and leaders. So it is obligatory to be wary of believing the liars. As for false fatwas, he presents them; when a fatwa is unclear to him, he presents it to its issuer, even by telephone, even by correspondence, until he is certain whether it was issued by him or not. I myself have been lied to by many people, just as they lied about the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and about the Companions.
So it is obligatory for the Muslim, when matters are confused for him, to ask the one to whom the fatwa was attributed, whether it is me or another scholar of knowledge. He asks them by contacting them, by correspondence, by telephone, until he verifies whether it is true or not. For liars are numerous, lying about people to promote their falsehood, or to undermine the paths of scholars and tarnish their reputation among people by what they lie about them. And thus they lie about the rulers and the state. So it is obligatory not to rush to believe them, and to be aware that there are liars from whom one must be wary. Just as lies were told about the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) regarding the hadiths, and about the Companions, it is not strange that lies are told about us and others in this time, for the enemies are numerous. Among the people here now is an enemy who is an atheist communist, but he pretends to be a Muslim out of hypocrisy. And among them is an ignorant person who has air and a base origin. And among them is one who works for others for a wage, given a wage to lie and to transmit false speech for the sake of the one who hired him for that. So the result is that one must be wary of that, for there are hired liars, and there are liars who have motives, and there are ignorant people who do not know what they are saying, from here and here and here and here, from inside the country and outside it. So one must be wary. It is obligatory for every Muslim to fear Allah, and to watch over Allah, and not to transmit a fatwa except with insight, from its issuer with insight. This is the obligation of every one who fears Allah and is wary of Him: not to transmit a fatwa except with insight from its issuer who said it. Yes.