QuizTime(38):
Which Prophet of Allah called his own wife, "My Sister" ?
Ans: Ibrahim(pbuh) called his Wife Sarah(May Allah
mercy be upon her) as Sister in Islam.
The
Hadith as narrated in the book of Muslim is as follows:
"Ibn Sirin narrates from Abu Hurayra that said, "Ibrahim, (pbuh),
never lied except three times, two were for the sake of God, the Mighty, when
He said, 'I am sick' and 'The biggest of them did it.' And one was about Sareh.
He went by the land of one of the tyrants with Sareh, who was very beautiful.
He said to Sareh 'This is a tyrant person, if he knows that you are my wife he
will overcome me (kill me) because of you. So if he asked you tell him that you
are my sister. You are in deed my sister in Islam, and I do not know any
Muslims on the face of earth except myself and you." ... (Muslim, 2371).
According
to the Hadith, Ibrahim (pbuh) did not tell the truth in three occasions:
1. When he said he was Saqeem, which can be translated as weak or ill (37:89).
2. When he said that the big idol had destructed the other idols (21:63).
3. When he advised Sarah to say she was his sister when she met the tyrant.
By stretching the meaning of lie one may consider the above three as lies,
however none of them really go under that meaning of lie that is
condemned.
A review of verses, Qur’an ch 6 Verses 76-79 shows that Ibrahim (pbuh) had a
very unique and effective approach in preaching. He would orchestrate a
situation in order to illustrate the false beliefs of his people and let them
come to conclusions themselves. Instances one and two above are also part of
this:
1) Ibrahim says he is ill (or weak) to excuse himself from the ceremony that
people were at, in order to have an opportunity to break the idols. When some
one is not in a mood to attend a ceremony he can simply say that he is not
feeling well meaning that his mood is not befitting with the ceremony. This is
not saying the truth in an exact way but is also not a total lie.
2) In the second instance Ibrahim (pbuh) says something that is not true (i.e.
the big idol destructing the other ones), but everyone else also knows that it
is not true. He knows that everyone knows this is not true and everyone knows
that he knows that no one considers this to be true! This is not a lie. This is
a sarcastic and at the same time a powerful way of showing people how baseless
and ridiculous their
belief is.
3) As for the third instance, the wording of the Hadith itself suggests that
Ibrahim (pbuh) intended the truth, but not all the truth and not the exact
truth. Sareh was in deed his sister in Islam (1). All that happens is that it
was not revealed that here 'sister' does not mean literal sister, and it was
not revealed that she was also his wife. There are times that we should be
ready to sacrifice our lives for the sake of the truth and in these times we
are not to lie about ourselves and our beliefs. However there are also life
threatening situations where no sacrifice is needed or even applicable. I do
not think that the Almighty expects us to say the truth and then die as the
result in these situations. Verse 16:106 of the Qur'an even allows
denying the faith (while holding it in the heart) if that can save one's
life (like the story of Ammar ibn Yasir).
According
to some scholars, what was intended by lying in those situations was only to
use equivocations (Tawriyah, i.e. saying something which has more than one
meaning and intending a meaning different from what the listener is likely to
understand) rather than explicit lies. The scholars stated that attributing
lies to Ibrahim (A.S.) in this context, does not mean explicit lying.
Link: “Tawriyah” https://islamqa.info/en/answers/27261/permissibility-of-ambiguity-and-definition-of-necessity
Story
of Ibrahim(pbuh)
Link:
https://sunnahonline.com/library/stories-of-the-prophets/293-6-story-of-ibrahim-abraham-the
Allah knows the best .
By
Mohammed Asif Ali. #MohammedAsifAli
Our Page link: https://www.facebook.com/Islam.A.Solution.For.Humanity/
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