O Believers, if an unrighteous person comes to you with information, you should verify it or else you might inflict harm on a people in ignorance and then end up regretting what you have done.
(Al Quraan 49:6)
1.1
O Believers, if an unrighteous person comes to you with information, you should verify it or else you might inflict harm on a people in ignorance and then end up regretting what you have done.We have decided to commence this publication with this appropiate ayah from the Quraan. The believers should be concerned about the negative news that they are bombarded with especially when unrighteous people control all the information that reach us in this part of the World. They should pay attention to this verse before they listen and accept any news.
After the battle of Banu Mustalaq (5 AH/627 CE) in which the Mustalaq
tribe was defeated and taken prisoners, all members of the tribe were
divided up and given to the Muslims of Madeenah as slaves . The Prophet
subsequently married Juwayreeyah, daughter of the former king of the
Mustalaq tribe, al-Haarith ibn AbeeDaraar. The marriage made the
Sahaabah ashamed to have the relatives of the Prophet's wife as their
servants so they freed the rest of the tribe. When all members of the
Mustalaq tribe were freed, the Prophet invited al-Haarith to accept
Islaam which he willingly did. The Prophet then asked him to invite
the rest of his tribe to Islaam and to collect Zakaah from those who
became Muslim. Al-Haarith agreed and asked the Prophet to send a
messenger to collect the Zakaah at a particular time.
When the time arrived and no messenger came, al-Haarith feared that the
Prophet might have been displeased with him in some way so he
consulted his tribesmen and they agreed to send a delegation to the
Prophet in order to find out the reason for the delay. In the meantime
the Prophet sent al-Waleed ibn 'Uqbah to collect the Zakaah from
al-Haarith. However, on the way al-Waleed heard that a group from Banu
Mustalaq had set out and he became afraid. He returned swiftly to the
Prophet and told him that al-Haarith had refused to turn over the
Zakaah and had threatened his life.
The Prophet became angry and dispatched a group of companions to deal
with al-Haarith. The two groups met and returned to the Prophet, who
questioned al-Haarith as follows; "Why did you refuse to pay the Zakaah
and try to kill my messenger?" Al-Haarith replied, "By the one Who sent
you with the truth, I did not see him nor did he come to me, and the
only reason I came was because I feared that your reason for not
contacting me was due to Allaah's displeasure with us. " Then the verse,
O Believers, if an unrighteous person comes to you with news, you
should verify it... was revealed.
This verse was revealed confirming the truth of al-Haarith's statement,
reprimanding the Prophet his snap judgement and warning the Believers
in general to thoroughly check out any information coming from
questionable sources. The principle was designed to avoid judgements
which could bring harm to others since our sorrow and regret no matter
how great it may be cannot wipe out the hurt caused by false aacusations
though it might have been unintentional. Thus, great caution must always
be taken when dealing with information conveyed by people of doubtful
character, those whose honesty has not yet been proven or by known
sinners.
It should be noted that based on this verse, Islaamic scholars have unanimously ruled that the testimony of one who is known to be unrighteous should be rejected as evidence in court unless verified. (If his testimony can be confirmed, it is obligatory to do so and if it can not be confirmed, it should be flatly rejected). The converse also holds true. The testimony of a just and righteous person does not require verification except in special cases identified by the Ouraan or the Sunnah.
On the basis of the above mentioned legal ruling, the scholars of Hadeeth decided to reject any Hadeeth which had in its chain of narrators an individual classified as Majhool al-Haal, that is, one whose name is known but his character is unknown, for any such narrator ,night be of bad moral character and his statement false. This shows the great care taken by Hadeeth scholars in weeding out all the questionable narrations thereby preserving the Sunnah in its pristine puruty for later generations.
(Check Bilaal Philipp's Tafseer of Soorah Al-Hujuraat for more details).