Slander is Serious
By Nouman Ali Khan | 2026-01-08T22:06:11.34447+00:00 | Topic: Iman
Slander is Serious - Khutbah by Nouman Ali Khan
Introduction: Our Islamic Identity and Confidence
I've chosen to give myself a difficult task in this khutbah and talk about something that's clearly politically incorrect. And I want to start by a couple of comments that all Muslims, including myself, should be very clear on and we should remind ourselves of repeatedly. We're not sorry for being Muslim. And we don't apologize for anything that Allah has revealed in His book, or that has been instructed in the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. We don't have to owe anyone else an explanation. We don't have to be embarrassed or ashamed that your book says this, this, and this. How can you believe that? Your Prophet said this, this, and that.
How can you believe that? How can you agree with that? There are people that constantly try to put us in this position. And we feel like we have to defend ourselves and sometimes we don't know the answer. And sometimes we hear things being said about our Prophet ﷺ. Or things being quoted from the Qur'an.
And somebody will ask you, this sounds pretty barbaric. This sounds pretty violent. This sounds pretty inhumane or unjust. How can you be okay with that? You people actually believe this stuff? You guys think this is okay? And at first, when you hear it, you're like, well, you know, technically, no, we're not okay with it. And you take a step back. And it's okay to say, I don't understand any better.
But it's not okay to say, well, if that's what it says, I disagree. Because we don't disagree. Everything in this book, everything Allah has revealed, is not only something that we believe in.
Complete Submission to Allah's Commands
Even if we're uncomfortable. First of all, there's no room for discomfort.
They don't have any room for discomfort in their hearts after whatever decisions you've made.
This is who we are in Islam. This is what makes us Muslim. Not only do we not have discomfort, but we're happy before Allah for everything He revealed. It is not a source of discomfort for us, it is a source of joy.
Because of the Qur'an, they should be overjoyed. Every ayah of the Qur'an is part of my iman and part of your faith.
Every ayah of the Qur'an should bring me joy. I should be happy to believe in it. I should be proud to believe in it. I should have confidence in it. And it's a problem when you and I start thinking there are some things we should be worried about. They say it in the Qur'an, Allah says it in the Qur'an. How am I gonna explain this to someone else? Oh man, if a non-Muslim ask me, I'm in trouble. You know? And we take a back foot. This is actually a point of shame for myself and for you.
That we don't know what Allah's book says. And when we don't understand what Allah's book says, we don't make an effort to explain it. That's the first thing I wanted to bring to your attention before we deal with the subject matter itself.
The Qur'an is Revealed for Human Nature
The second thing I wanna bring to your attention is this is the book not just of guidance but of fitrah. Allah revealed this book for the benefit of humanity. And as a matter of fact, even jinn can benefit as far as Allah is concerned. And when He revealed this book, He knows exactly who He sent it to. He sent it to the creation He made Himself.
Doesn't He know who He created?
Allah will not give you and me instructions without knowing who we are first. And He knows us better than we know ourselves. You know when someone gives you instructions and you can say, well if they understood my situation, they would give different instructions. Sometimes your boss can ask you to do something and you can say, well you know what? Right now I have these other, other things I have to do. You don't understand those. If I wish he understood my situation and then gave me these instructions, maybe his mind would change, maybe there's some room for negotiation. Nobody knows what you're going through, what your life is like, what your situation is like, what your capabilities are like, better than Allah.
And Allah is the one who gave you and me these instructions. So He knows exactly who He's talking to and what He needs to say. This is perfect for all human beings. This is also part of my iman, this is part of my faith. And for me to think that Allah will say something that is not for my own benefit, this is also, it goes against my own faith. Allah will never tell me or you anything unless that it's beneficial for us.
The Qur'an as an Act of Mercy
This book is an act of mercy from Allah. It's an act of rahma from Allah. This is why He says
Of all the names of Allah associated with teaching the Qur'an, you know, He could have just said, (الْعَزِيزُ عَلَّمَ الْقُرْآنَ - al-Aziz 'allamal-Qur'an) the authority taught the Qur'an, so that you take the Qur'an as an authority.
No, but He described Himself as the teacher who is (الرَّحْمَٰنُ - ar-Rahman). Excessively, overwhelmingly, merciful and loving and caring. He's the one who taught the Qur'an. So when He teaches it, He's teaching it out of love, out of care, out of mercy. So even if at face value you see something and you find it harsh, actually even in that there is a mercy for you. And so with that in mind, what I want to share with you is that the ahkam, the rulings of Allah, the governance of Allah, the commands of Allah, when we don't understand them, we might think they're harsh.
But when you actually understand them, and you should not try to understand them because you wanna explain them to someone else. You should understand them for yourself. That is the wrong reason to learn something. So what I want to share with you is not so you have something good to say to your non-Muslim co-worker. We don't owe them an explanation first. We owe ourselves an explanation because we owe ourselves the obligation to understand the book of Allah better.
When we do that first, then naturally it will come from our heart that we will want to share its goodness with others. You know, if the only reason you wanna learn about Islam is public relations, there's a problem. There's not the reason you should want to learn about Islam. Just so you can make less embarrassing conversation with your non-Muslim friends. That's not the reason.
Understanding Allah's Commands Through Human Nature
So now, coming to this, Allah (عز وجل - azza wa jal) revealed ahkam, governance, laws, commandments that directly appeal to the nature of the human being because Allah knows who He created and who He is giving instructions to. So when we understand Allah's commands, the idea in the Qur'an is actually they resonate. There's something inside you, a conscience inside you that Allah created, this fitrah inside you that Allah put. When you understand the commands of Allah, forget about discomfort, you're like, that makes complete sense.
That's so wise, that's so beautiful. And if we haven't arrived at that yet, maybe we haven't thought about it enough, about the ahkam of Allah, the rulings, the governance of Allah. And on the other hand, maybe our hearts aren't pure enough yet. May Allah (عز وجل - azza wa jal) give us both of those things, an understanding of the book of Allah and purity in our hearts.
The Punishment for Public Indecency
So one of the most politically incorrect places in the Qur'an is about the male or the female who commit adultery, that you should whip them, you know
lash them or whip them a hundred times. So the Qur'an says that y'all gotta whip the people who commit adultery a hundred times.
What kind of barbaric law is that? And then we take it up, no, no, no, well, you know, in modern times things are different, it's okay, it's not the same. Wait, wait, this is the timeless book of Allah. So let's understand what Allah says first before you worry about explaining it to somebody else.
The Context of Public Adultery
Ibn Ashur rahimahullah commenting on the words (الزَّانِيَةُ وَالزَّانِي - az-zaniyyatu waz-zani) in the beginning of this ayah, suggest that because the ism, the noun is used, that this is actually talking about people who repeatedly do this
all the time. It's talking about prostitutes. It's talking about people who are in the illegal sexual industry, first and foremost.
And there's plenty of historical, there's not something that just came out, plenty of classical scholarship dealing with what is the context of this ayah, what is it talking about, and this was a serious problem in the city of Medina before the Prophet moved there, (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wasalam). And now the Prophet has moved there, and the problem continues. And so the Quran is gonna comment on a problem that's going on in this city.
The Four Witness Requirement
And it was so threatening, here's the part that's important, everybody here I think has heard that the act of adultery, or the act of illegal intimate relations between a man and a woman, will not be punishable until you have four witnesses. You may have heard this before, that you have to have four witnesses.
Now any commonsensical human being will know that nobody does something like that with four witnesses around. Nobody does that with four witnesses around. The only way you can do something like that with four witnesses around is if you're out in public. What is called in modern law a public display of indecency.
In modern law, in many countries they have laws about public displays of indecency. As a matter of fact, if something like this was happening on the street, Texas laws are there to arrest those people and punish them. If something like that was happening on an airplane, there are laws for a few years in jail.
So this is not just something new in Islam, or it was brought in Islam and no one else has it, virtually every civilized nation in the world has laws dealing with public display of indecency. They have them. And the Qur'an has them too, because the Qur'an is preparing a new civilization, a civilization of believers.
The Societal Impact of Public Indecency
And this is a very serious crime, because if that kind of shamelessness is happening openly in the street, where even four people can walk by and see it, then there are going to be children, young people, there are going to be innocent people that haven't been exposed to that kind of corrupt images, and this is going to damage them psychologically. It's going to undermine something that is so important to the core of a family, it's going to mess people's minds up. When you make something that should remain private, and you make it public, then it corrupts people, it messes them up.
Modern Comparison: The Pornography Industry
Now let's take a step back and understand something. We're living at a time, forget four witnesses, you can have four million witnesses, because the pornography industry and the filth industry sells itself with billions and billions of dollars. Internet marketers, internet marketers that can sell anything from like
bamboo sticks to towels, you know the most successful internet product? They're in the pornography industry.
They're the leaders in marketing. When you go to marketing seminars, internet marketing seminars, the guys at the top of the industry that are making the most bang for the buck are the ones that are selling zina online. They're the ones.
So this is completely public now. And when it is that public, can you imagine the damage that it does to the minds of people that are exposed to it? The damage that it's already done? How many children are messed up? How many young adults are messed up? How many marriages are getting destroyed because of these images floating in the public? How almost impossible it's become to not be exposed to some of that filth no matter how hard you try because there's so much money pumped into making sure that you'll see something like it. And so the Qur'an comes along and says, this is a very serious problem with very serious ramifications.
People will become twisted and confused. And they're going to commit crimes that won't even make sense. How many kinds of disgusting crimes are committed in the United States even against children? And violent sexual crimes. How many are reported every other minute? These are things that happen when you get exposed to this kind of filth over and over again and it becomes normalized. So the Qur'an steps in and says, no, if someone does this in public, then you have to punish them.
The Merciful Nature of the Punishment
Now let's talk about this punishment. They're not killed, they're whipped. And they're whipped a hundred times. And when they're whipped a hundred times, Allah (عز وجل - azza wa jal) doesn't say just whip them and that's it.
The fuqaha, the scholars of this deen, the sahaba themselves, they would have exhaustive discussion on how to deal with these people. By the way, this is not the only time Allah talks about punishing people like this. There are ayat that came before surah an-Nur, much before surah an-Nur and surah an-Nisa.
Earlier Punishment for New Muslims
And in surah an-Nisa
The two of them, sometimes some guy became Muslim. In Medina, he became Muslim. And some girl became Muslim. But before they became Muslim, they were boyfriend and girlfriend. And they had no concept of marriage. They don't know anything because they're not Muslim.
And now all of a sudden they've become Muslim. But just because they took shahada does not mean that they become super spiritual people overnight. They're human beings, they're developing. Like Allah says Himself,
You're going to develop little by little by little. So Allah even describes the scenario where even Muslims, in the beginning in Medina life, even Muslims may have committed such an act. Some young man got tempted and he did something out of wedlock.
He's not even married yet, and he did something with a girl. What do you do with them? The ayahs came down which were later mensookh by these ayahs, by the opinion of many scholars. What was the punishment for them?
The two of them that have done that mistake among you فَآذُوهُمَا Then cause them pain.
Allah didn't say how cause them pain. He just says cause them pain. So the sahaba would have a debate. Ibn Abbas would say, other sahaba would come and say, maybe what Allah means is, you should yell at them. How could you do this? You should be ashamed of yourself. And that means cause them pain.
Other sahaba would say, we should take a stick and hit the bottom of their feet, like 10 times, cause them pain. Nobody thought about whipping them and cutting them and hanging them upside down and stoning. No, no, no, no, no. None of that yet. They're just young people who made a mistake, take it easy. They just became Muslim.
This mistake happened, they need to be reprimanded, and by the way, this is in Qur'an
And if they've both made tawbah, and they say, we're never gonna do it again, or maybe they even get married now, leave them alone. Don't make a bigger deal out of it.
Allah Himself has always been someone who accepts tawbah. Let them move on with their life. They made a big mistake, yes, but let them move on with their life.
Don't expose them more. You've already done what you could. And later on when the punishment came, it came, and by the way, even then the four witnesses was necessary, by the way. Even then the four witnesses was necessary. And so later on, when this commandment, it got tougher. If something happens now, they better be whipping. They better be whipped.
The Detailed Implementation of the Punishment
Well, how are they whipped? You imagine some big, you know, leather thing, and they just, you know, and the guy is bleeding, and he's, they do 100 times, by the 10th time he's already dead. No, no, no, hold on a second.
The fuqaha would discuss this. They would say, never whip them in a hot day, or an extremely cold day, because the skin will be extra sensitive. Don't whip them out in the blazing sun, because that's not punishment Allah intends for them. When the guy raises his hand, his armpit shouldn't show. So he shouldn't go like this. Like, you know, we think that when you're gonna punish, then the guy we should get is like a pro wrestler or somebody, who's gonna, when he whips, is gonna be like, you know, serious.
No, no, that's not the point. As a matter of fact, it's more ceremonial than anything else. In Islamic history, this punishment has been executed. By the way, Islam spread across continents, you know that. Hundreds
of millions of people have been Muslim throughout the last 14, 15 hundred years. And this is recorded to have happened maybe 3, 4 times.
There was not an occasion where this would even be executed. That's Islamic history. Across the continents. And if it did happen, make sure their armpit doesn't even show. And they hit. And if it hits any part of the body that can be lethal, don't hit there. And if one part is getting injured, don't hit there again. And don't hit on the face. And don't hit on sensitive parts. And this is all this exhaustive instruction.
The Real Focus: Societal Protection
But that's actually not my khutbah. My khutbah is not about explaining this punishment to you. The point is, Allah decided that public display of indecency is a major crime because it damages society. So it should be punished. And the principle here, the principle is that anything... There are different kinds of sins.
But if you do a kind of sin that damages society, then you should be punished in this world. There are sins you and I do that only damage us. They only damage us. And we will answer to Allah on judgment day. You don't get punished for them over here in this world. There's no hadd for you here in this world because the damage is limited to yourself, maybe your family, something like that.
But when you do a crime that hurts others, that damages others, that damages society, then there are social punishments in Islam. Allah is not interested in torturing you for everything you do. That's not this religion. You've got it confused with something else.
The Main Topic: Slander and False Accusations
Now if you understand that, the real crux of my khutbah, very little time left in this khutbah, but what I wanted to get to, is this is how many whips? 100. Then Allah mentions another crime that is almost just as bad. Almost just as bad. Because that crime, you should get whipped 80 times. 80 times.
Now practically, if somebody is being hit 100 times, and somebody else is being hit how many? 80 times. You can't even tell the difference. I mean, who's gonna sit there and count? It's humiliating either way. It's embarrassing either way.
The Compassionate Nature of Punishment
And by the way, I didn't mention the ending of the previous ayah. When the whipping is happening, Allah says,
Don't become compassionate when you're punishing them.
In other words, even the people punishing them, even the one raising the whip, feels bad and says, I don't want to do this. And Allah says, I know you don't want to do it, but still you have to do it. Allah is
not telling him to be harsh. Allah is telling him, I acknowledge the love you have for your sinful Muslim brother. We are learning in this ayah that even the people who committed such a terrible sin in public, even then the Muslim has so much love for the fellow Muslim, that he can't even get himself to punish without having rahma and ra'fa, compassion and mercy in his heart for the one he's punishing.
Some people think, I want to establish sharia, which means I just want to whip somebody. I just want to hit him real good. Because that means, iqamatul hudud. What Quran are you reading? Allah (عز وجل) is describing to you that you already have ra'fa, you have compassion and hold it back, because you have to do a difficult thing. You have to hit your fellow believer.
The Role of Witnesses in Punishment
And then after he says that, he says a group of mu'mineen should watch it. Not just any believers. Al- mu'mineen means mature believers. People with, you know, ar-rasikhuna fil-ilmi wal-iman. People who are deeply rooted in their faith. He doesn't just say, He says al-mu'mineen. So mature believers should watch the punishment happening. Mature believers, worshippers, spiritually mature people, older people, wiser people, they're watching the punishment.
Why? Why should they watch? They should bring young people to watch. Hey, don't do this, see what's gonna happen to you. Allah didn't say that. Allah said, bring the mu'mineen. And Ibn Qayyim and other scholars commented, the reason they should bring them is as they are being punished, the mu'mineen will be making dua for the ones that are being punished. Because they are not dead yet.
They are still alive. And if Allah condemned them to hellfire, then Allah did not want them to breathe anymore. So long as they are breathing in this world, the room for tawbah is open. And so they're paying the price for their sin in this world, they could use the dua. Ya Allah, give them sabr, give them tawbah, accept their tawbah, let them move on with their life, unite us with them in akhira, in a good place. That's the job of those who are watching.
The job of those who are watching is not to say, see that? That's what you get. That's not their job. This is Quran.
The Crime of Slander: 80 Lashes
And so a hundred lashes. But what crime is there that you get 80 lashes for? I get shaken when I read this. Wallahi al-azim, I get shaken.
Those, I'll translate badly first. Those who accuse decent women. Those who accuse decent women.
That's not the best translation that gives you some idea of what the ayah is talking about. Now let me tell you the language Allah uses. Allah says, those who throw something (يَرْمُونَ) those who throw something in the direction of women that are protected by family. (مُحْصَنَاتِ) means women inside a camp, inside a
fort. Allah describes families as a kind of protection. So whether they are mothers, daughters, sisters, wives, they're all (مُحْصَنَاتِ)
They're all (مُحْصَنَاتِ). And all of those women that are in a family, those who throw anything in their direction. Now what in the world does that mean? The Qur'an, (أبلغ الكلام) as I was describing in the Arabic part of my khutbah, the most eloquent, the perfect speech.
Allah could have just said (الذين يتهمون المحصنات بزنا) Those who accuse women of having committed adultery. (أوضح) it's clear. He didn't say that. Allah (عز وجل) is very precise. People are not going to a woman and saying she's done adultery. They're saying, that woman, I'm not sure. I think I saw her with this other guy the other day. I don't know what they're talking about. That much, that much.
The Subtlety of Slander
You're not saying, you know people when they say the most terrible things, before they say them, they say, I'm not saying anything. But, you know. And then as soon as you say, I'm not saying anything, that means you're going to say the worst possible thing. You know. And I wish you weren't saying anything. But you are.
And when people do that, people make a passing comment. Those two, I don't know, something's going on. (کچھ کالا میں دال، کچھ چکر ہے یہاں). Something. I think I saw some text messages. I think she was on the phone and she was smiling, what's that about? You know. Why are they standing so close to each other? Why is this happening? Just these comments, just these comments. This is enough to fall under (يَرْمُونَ الْمُحْصَنَاتِ) Because Allah left the language open.
You didn't accuse them explicitly, you just threw something in that direction. And the rest is left to shaitan and your imagination. Because when you say, I'm not saying anything, but those two, I don't know. Then the next person is going to say, I don't know what you heard, you know what I heard? Those two, I think they're, you know. And then it gets worse, and worse, and worse, and worse. And people are talking, and everybody's saying, I'm not saying anything.
And everybody's saying, shh, don't tell anyone. And everybody's talking, and everybody's saying to everybody else, don't tell anyone. And you know what happens then? The dignity of an entire family is destroyed. The purity of a woman who you have no evidence against, is destroyed. No, but I did see them in the mall. Really?
If you make such an accusation, and you did not produce four witnesses, they didn't come forward with four witnesses.
The Standard of Evidence Required
And then the fuqaha would describe, not four witnesses that they both, they all saw them in the movie theater together. Or they all saw them in the mall together. Or they all saw them driving in the same direction. Or they all saw... No, no, no, no, no, no. If they haven't seen them commit the ultimate sin with
their own eyes, if they haven't seen that, then whip them 80 times. Understand the seriousness of talking about people's dignity, especially the Muslim woman's dignity.
The seriousness of it. That Allah put it right next to people who commit zina in public.
The Harsher Punishment for Slanderers
And I want to end with this. I want you to think about this. When Allah talked about people who commit zina adultery in public, by the end of it, isn't Allah opening the door of forgiveness for them? Allah is saying about them that they should be punished, but then there should be, you already feel compassion for them, the mu'mineen should overlook them, so they can make dua for them, that's the implication. But when it came to the people who accuse, the people who throw accusations, who throw slanderous, scandalous comments, or say, no, no, no, they don't even say something, they ask something.
That's even better. I'm not saying, I'm just asking. Do you think something's going on? Just that much. Even a question is throwing something. And when you do this much, what does Allah (عز وجل) say about these people? Not only the whipping, but He says
Don't ever accept their testimony. Don't ever be nice to these people again.
My goodness, this sounds worse. And then on top of that
And those are the ones that are ultimately corrupt. Allah didn't even say that about the zani. He didn't even say
He says
about these people.
Why Slander is Punished So Severely
The question is, why are they being whipped? And that's the last thing, why are they being whipped? Because when you talk about people in this way, then you are also damaging society. Remember I told you, Allah only punishes in this world when you do things that damage society, that damage other people.
When you damage the dignity of a Muslim, a Muslim male, a Muslim female, when you damage their dignity, this is a punishable crime in this world, not only in the next. This is a very serious matter. The izzah, the ikram, the nobility, the dignity of a Muslim. This is something very big to Allah. Allah will make a khasas of it and say
Allah alone owns dignity, and it's for the Prophet and the believers. This is something Allah gave to the Muslim.
You cannot and I cannot take away what Allah gave. This is something Allah gave, and we have to protect it. And we have to, one of the most damaging things we can do is with our tongues.
Avoiding Assumptions and Giving Benefit of the Doubt
When you have an assumption, just remember the word of Allah
Stay away from making assumptions. Some assumptions can become very grave sin, very serious sin. Stay away from making assumptions.
Give benefit of the doubt. You don't know those two, they're holding hands, they're walking over there, or they must be married, they must be brother and sister. No, no, but I don't think... Leave it. Go the other way, go make istighfar. That's not your business. (مِنْ حُسْنِ إِسْلَامِ الْمَرْءِ تَرْكُهُ مَا لَا يَعْنِيهِ - min husni islamil mar'i tarkuhu ma la ya'nihi) (Tirmidhi 2318) Part of the beauty of Islam of a person, they leave alone what's not their business.
It ain't your business. Don't talk about it.
Closing Duas and Reminders
May Allah (عز وجل) protect our tongues, protect our hearts, protect ourselves from each other's harm. May Allah (عز وجل) make us of those who are careful in speaking about the dignity of others. May Allah (عز وجل) not make us of those who make excuses and hide behind excuses. May Allah (عز وجل) give us the ability to see our mistakes for what they are and seek His forgiveness and the forgiveness of others whom we may have spoken ill about.
May Allah (عز وجل) protect the dignity of all of the Muslims, especially the women of this ummah. May Allah (عز وجل) protect the dignity of our mothers, our wives, our daughters, our sisters. May Allah (عز وجل) protect the dignity of our entire family and may Allah (عز وجل) help us raise a generation that is much closer to Allah than we've been able to be.