Explanation of the remainder of the hadith: “...and he was sitting, leaning on his side, when he said, ‘Beware of false speech.’ He kept repeating it until we said, ‘If only he would stop.’”

The Shaykh : Then Abu Bakrah said, completing the hadith, that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was leaning on his side, taking his ease and resting (peace and blessings be upon him) by leaning. He then sat up in a natural sitting position, concerned with what he was about to tell the people, which was the narrator’s statement. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: This is one of the greatest of the major sins. The Messenger (peace be upon him) mentioned it in this hadith after associating partners with Allah and after being undutiful to parents. He gave importance to false testimony and false speech greater than the importance he gave to the preceding traits, namely being undutiful to parents and associating partners with Allah. Since he (peace be upon him) was leaning in this manner, he sat up when he reached this phrase and said: He kept repeating it until we said, ‘If only he would stop.’ He repeated it not once or twice, but many times, until his Companions (peace and blessings be upon him) wished, out of concern for him, that he would stop and rest from this repetition. This action of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) indicates that false testimony and false speech, that is, lying, are among the major sins and among the matters that have a profound effect in corrupting society. Indeed, many people, because of false testimony and false speech, mix up lineages. They claim that so-and-so is the husband of so-and-so, and it is forbidden for him, so the judge rules based on this false testimony, and he has intercourse with her. And offspring may result from that, and the offspring may be children of zina (unlawful sexual intercourse). This is also said regarding wealth and other rights. All of this is an effect of the effects of false testimony and false speech. And it is as if the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), by sitting up after having been leaning, was pointing to the social harms that result from the spread of false speech and false testimony in a society. Then, this hadith mentioned three types of associating partners with Allah (Mighty and Majestic), while there are other hadiths that include other types in addition to these three mentioned types.

The questioner : Major sins.

The Shaykh : Among the major sins. Yes, how is that? For example, some hadiths mention, and perhaps some of them will be mentioned tonight, sorcery and fleeing from the battlefield, and the like of major sins. Is there a contradiction between this hadith, which limited itself to mentioning three of the major sins, and other hadiths that mention seven of the major sins, and perhaps some explicitly state, “The major sins are seven”? Is there a contradiction between a hadith that mentions three of them and other hadiths that mention more than that? The answer is: there is no contradiction, because the number has no conceptual implication in the language, especially when another text comes with a number greater than the first number. The number has no conceptual implication. If an Arab says, “I have three dirhams” or “I have three houses,” this does not negate that he has more than that, but it negates that he has less than that. So when the Messenger (peace be upon him) says, for example, this does not negate that the preference is more than twenty-five degrees, but we are not permitted to speak without knowledge. So when the hadith comes with the number twenty-five, we stop there. But if we see another hadith that mentions twenty-seven instead of twenty-five, we do not say there is a contradiction between the two numbers, between twenty-five and twenty-seven.