Rasa News Agency - Ayatollah Naser Makarem-Shirazi has been delivering a series of Ramadhan lectures on IRIB’s Channel Three program “Fountain of Knowledge.” On the 28th night, His Eminence emphasized the sins of creating and spreading rumours and revealing the secrets of others.
His Eminence stated that in Du’a Makarim al-Akhlaq (Supplication on the Noble Moral Traits), Imam Ali ibn al-Husayn as-Sajjad (A), included ethical problems of the tongue, such as backbiting, and said: “revealing of secrets is one of the branches of backbiting that is the most common in our era.”
He explained that sometimes political factions or people reveal information or secrets about others: “Unrevealed secrets sometimes become rumours. For example, when there aren’t any documents or evident to prove or disprove the allegations. Sometimes the evidence is based on hidden information which has been discovered [through malicious means] and then it becomes exposed.”
Ayatollah Makarem-Shirazi explained that revealing secrets and rumours is an example of slander and vilification: “When someone reveals information based on precise and hidden information, it is an example of backbiting because someone’s hidden flaws were exposed to others. Until the time when someone’s sins are proven in a competent court of law, revealing them in the media is against Islamic law because the allegations are not adequate and they must be brought forward with credible proofs in a competent court of law.”
His Eminence explained that sometimes creating rumours and revealing secrets can be a form of psychological warfare, and stated: “One of the branches of modern war is ‘psychological warfare,’ and one of the sub-branches of psychological warfare is creating and spreading rumours.”
He stated that disclosure of information and spreading rumours are contrary to Islamic law: “Sometimes the enemy creates political factionalism by spreading rumours and false information so that they can achieve their aims.”
Ayatollah Makarem-Shirazi referred to the Holy Quran which states that the hypocrites spread rumours against the Prophet Muhammad (S) as a weapon to discredit him: “The hypocrites said that one of the wives of the Prophet (S) was unchaste and spread this rumour throughout Madinah. They assumed that if the chastity of one of the wives of the Prophet (S) was questioned, then the claims of his prophethood would also be questioned. These were intentions of the hypocrites. After this rumour began, fifteen verses of Surat an-Nur [The Light] were revealed [verses 11-26] which condemned this psychological war and the creation of rumours.”
In one of the verses of Surat an-Nur, God says:
“Why did not the believing men and the believing women, when you heard it, think well of their own people, and say: ‘This is an evident falsehood?’” [24:12]
Ayatollah Makarem-Shirazi emphasized that there is a lesson for Muslims in these verses: we should not create rumours and not submit to them either. He explained: “When some of them explain ‘they say such a thing occurred,’ they have responsibility because creating rumours and revealing the secrets of others is fundamentally forbidden by Islamic law. The spreading of these rumours is also a sin by means of saying ‘they say…’”
His Eminence added: “We hope that our society can understand the commands of the Holy Quran and read these fifteen verses of Surat an-Nur to understand the importance that God has given to this matter.”
Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi concluded his sermon by emphasizing that we should be manipulated by gossipers and those who reveal secrets. “Those who create false rumours and reveal secrets are tools to stoke political divisions which are planned by the enemies,” he said.
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