Lying and calumny:

Dear brother, this is our 50th lecture of Al Nisaa chapter, verse 111. Allah the Almighty has said:

﴾And whoever commits a sin, he only commits it against his own soul; and Allah is Knowing, Wise * And whoever commits a fault or a sin, then accuses of it one innocent, he indeed takes upon himself the burden of a calumny and a manifest sin. ﴿

[An Nisaa – 111-112 ]

As a matter of fact, humans have been granted the freedom of choice, therefore all their characteristics and chances are neutral; they could employ them for good or for evil. Consequently, all their mistakes and sins are the fruit of what their hands have wrought; they could never attribute them to anyone else, and if they ever did, they would be the most ignorant people of all. A sin in gained. It is the result of your choice and action. You willingly wanted to do it and Allah gave you the power to realize your choice.

﴾And whoever commits a sin, he only commits it against his own soul ﴿

[An Nisaa – 111 ]

Whoever does good, it is for his own soul, and whoever does evil, it is against it. Allah Almighty said:

﴾Say: Nothing will afflict us save what Allah has ordained for us ﴿

[At Tawba - 51 ]

"for us" means "in our favor", while "against" reflects what we are responsible for.

﴾And whoever commits a sin, he only commits it against his own soul ﴿

[An Nisaa – 111]

﴾ And whoever commits a fault or a sin, then accuses of it one innocent ﴿

[An Nisaa - 112 ]

This is what Al Oubayrak did. He stole a shield and accused an innocent. He indeed takes upon himself the burden of a calumny and a manifest sin. Calumny is the toughest kind of lies. It is a fabricated lie not an exaggeration. A lie may have a basis, but the liar magnifies it. It also may not have such a basis - then the liar fabricates it. Calumny is fabricating a lie.

Allah undertakes revealing the truth:

Dear brother,
One of the Prophet's companions failed to join him in one of the hardest forays. When he returned back to Madinah after a foray, the Prophet, peace is upon him, used to listen to the excuses of those who were left behind. Eighty hypocrites came and gave different and decisive excuses, but when it was the turn of Kaab (one of the Prophet's three companions who failed to join him) to speak, he said to himself: "I have been given the ability of persuasion, but I am afraid to provoke the anger of the Prophet and, therefore, deserve Allah's wrath as Allah knows the truth." Therefore, he decided to be honest and when it was his turn to speak, he said: "By Allah, I have never been as strong as I was when I stayed behind. Therefore, I have no excuses." The Prophet, peace is upon him, smartly said: "This one told the truth", which means that the eighty people who spoke before him were all liars. And because Kaab was honest, the Divine Revelation ordered to boycott them fifty nights. Then, Allah mercifully turned to them and forgave them.
I told you this story to say that when someone commits a sin and accuses an innocent person, Allah will make the truth prevail over all; the innocent will be declared innocent and the guilty will be declared guilty.

﴾ And whoever commits a fault or a sin, then accuses of it one innocent, he indeed takes upon himself the burden of a calumny and a manifest sin. ﴿

[An Nisaa - 112]

This is the worst type of lie; this is a fabricated lie and a manifest sin.

Whoever seeks the Truth, Allah will grant it to him:

Dear Brother,
The story of Al Obayrak, whom these verses spoke about, is a good lesson to the believers. It teaches them that Islam is about justice and that one must be fair and just, even with his opponents.

﴾and let not hatred of a people inauthor you not to act equitably; act equitably, that is nearer to piety﴿

[Al Maaida – 8 ]

If one must be fair and just with those whom he hates and those who stand against him, how must he be with believers? Allah Almighty said:

﴾ and were it not for the grace of Allah upon you and His mercy ﴿

[An Nisaa - 83 ]

And this is a general verse.

﴾ and were it not for the grace of Allah upon you and His mercy ﴿

[An Nisaa - 83 ]

﴾ not one of you would have ever been pure ﴿

[An Noor - 21 ]

All this good you are enjoying starting from your understanding of this religion, the compliance with the commandments of Allah, the value and principles you embrace, and your behavior, all this is due to the grace of Allah upon you. You may ask "why did I get it from among all these people?" You wanted it and Allah granted you with it. The difference is quite big between asking and getting. The whole world is there in front of you and you are free to ask whatever you wish. Will you get it? No. But if you look for the truth, Allah will grant you thanks to His mercy and grace, and should He want to show His favor to you, He creates grace and attributes it to you.

Difference between enforcement and fair- seeming:

﴾And were it not for Allah's grace upon you and His mercy a party of them had certainly misled you﴿

[An Nisaa - 113 ]

Brother,
This verse makes an accurate allusion to a certain party."A party of them had certainly misled you." Scholars said that "made" could be about "enforcement" or about "fair-seeming". Sometimes, all that you want is to "enforce" someone to do what displeases Allah, but Allah protects His Prophet from this enforcement. The Prophet has never behaved against Allah's doctrine; he has never said a word that displeases Allah, or given an unfair judgment. The Prophet, peace be upon him, is infallible alone, while the Muslim nation is infallible as whole. This party that tried to mislead him, made things look fair to him, but was never able to enforce him to say an unfair word, thanks to Allah's grace. They were able to make Al Obayrak look innocent, but the difference is quite big between "be able to enforce" and "make things look fair". A bad companion may lead you to do evil; all his concern is to make you fall into the abyss. Another companion may make evil look fair to you, but does not enforce you to do it, and things ended at that point.
Not for the grace of Allah, "a party of them had certainly misled you". But how would they mislead him? This is quite critical. If the Prophet, peace be upon him, who receives Allah's Revelation, declares an innocent guilty and a guilty innocent, what would the guilty, who is declared innocent, say? He would say: "How could he be mistaken?", and attribute this mistake to the Revelation which then becomes implausible in his eyes. Now let us move to another critical issue: if a preacher speaks in some subject other than religion and say what does not please to Allah… If, for the sake of an interest of his own, he praises those who should not be praised or vilifies those who should not be vilified, the truth he represents will definitely fall. Therefore, Allah Almighty says:

﴾Those who deliver the messages of Allah and fear Him, and do not fear anyone but Allah; and Allah is sufficient to take account.﴿

[Al Ahzaab - 39 ]

The believer says the truth only and when he speaks he is conservative:

Those who deliver the messages of Allah are the successors of the Prophet in the transmission of the truth to people. If they feared sh3er than Allah and spoke unjustly and hid the truth, how could their message stand? Their message would certainly fall. If the one whom you believe is receiving Revelation from above ever lies to you about an earthy matter, will you still believe in the Revelation he receives from above? They wanted to make the Prophet believe that Al Obayrak did not steal. If they succeeded in making the Prophet pronounce an unjust judgment against an innocent man and acquit the guilty one, what would the acquitted man and those who gathered around think of this person who pretends to be receiving the Divine Revelation? They will inevitably suspect this revelation that comes to him from above. Moreover, this innocent man who was unjustly pronounced guilty, and those who stand around him - how will they ever accept that the Prophet is entrusted with the Divine Revelation while he inflicted an innocent man with a severe injustice?
This is actually one of the serious mistakes that those who carried the message of Truth after the Prophet committed. If a scholar, who is attending a wedding ceremony, praises the groom in such an exaggerated way, what would the groom's relatives think of this scholar who falsely praises a bad person? His image will never be the same… Even his very true speech will never be taken as such. If the person, who receives the Divine Revelation, pronounced an innocent man guilty and vice versa, what kind of revelation is this? Where is this light that Allah threw in his heart? Where is the impact of the Divine Revelation on his behavior? This is the exact meaning of the following verse:

﴾And were it not for Allah's grace upon you and His mercy a party of them had certainly designed to bring you to perdition﴿

[An Nisaa - 113 ]

Therefore, one must always be conservative. Beside Abu Bakr, is there a more righteous caliph than Omar Ibnul Khattab, may Allah be pleased with them both? When Abu Bakr appointed Omar, people complained because Omar was such a severe person, so he said: "Are you trying to scare me from Allah Almighty? If Allah asked me ‘Why did you appoint Omar’, I will say ‘I appointed the most merciful one among them. This is what I know about him, and if it ever changes, I have no knowledge of the unseen.”

This is an eloquent lesson for all those who call to Allah and carry the message of Truth. If one speaks incorrectly about a public concern, if he says what he should not say, if he says what does not please Allah Almighty, if he praises a debauchee and vilifies a believer, if he ever does this, this untrue part of his speech will discredit the true one. Therefore, a believer tells nothing but the truth, and when he speaks, he remains conservative. Abu Bakr said: "This is what I know about him, and if it ever changes, I have no knowledge of the unseen."

Truth, morals, and values cannot be divided:

They tried to delude the Messenger of Allah, through embellishment not effectively, by saying that Al Obayrak is innocent. Now, if the Prophet declared Al Obayrak , who stole, innocent and the Jew, who did not steal, guilty, what would be the value of the Divine Revelation for not only these two men, but also for their inner circles, their relatives and those who seek refuge with them? What if the news spread? If a person was honored by calling to Allah and, in a certain venue on a certain occasion he says what does not please Allah, speaks incorrectly, praises who should not be praised or vilifies who should be praised, this improper behavior will discredit the Truth he is preaching for. If, for instance, you call for an expert and hear him lying in front of you about a certain matter, what would you do? You will never trust neither his experience, nor his loyalty nor his specialization.
Here is a story of a man who came from Madinah to Bosra to learn the Hadith from a scholar who possesses the knowledge of the Prophet's speech. When he approached him, the scholar was trying to bring a horse to him by making it believe that there is barley in his pocket. Seeing the scholar lying to the horse, the apprentice turned back to where he came from and did not ask for anything. Because truth is whole and one, and because values are whole and one, the person who lies to his horse is definitely not entitled to transmit the Prophet's Hadith.

﴾And were it not for Allah's grace upon you and His mercy a party of them had certainly designed to bring you to perdition﴿

[An Nisaa - 113 ]

They embellish Al Obayrak's innocence and the Jew's guilt to you, and if you ever say other than the truth this would reflect on your Message and the Truth you carry.
When you, in your daily life, trust someone and then you see him making an unfair judgment about a worldly matter, will you still look at him the same way you used to? Will you still respect his knowledge and position?
If, for instance, you ask a savant about a person and, in order to keep you away from him, he starts to insult him without even having met him or listened to him or read a book he wrote, would you still respect this savant? What is knowledge? Is it about information you learned or about ethical attitudes you adopt?

As the matter of fact, knowledge means a fair judgment. When the Prophet, peace is upon him, saw his son-in-law among the prisoners who came with the infidels to fight him, he looked at him and said: "By Allah, we have never complained about him as a son-in-law", which means that he was a good one.

Allah prevents the disbelievers from misleading the believers:

Allah says:

﴾and they do not bring (aught) to perdition but their own souls﴿

[An Nisaa - 113 ]

﴾And I (too) will make a scheme.﴿

[At Taariq - 16 ]

Allah's scheme is a wise arrangement to deter (the infidels) from misleading the believers. However, they do not mislead but themselves. Their bad deed was meant to embellish Al Obayrak's innocence and the Jew's guilt to the Prophet, peace is upon him. By doing that, some of them wanted the Prophet to make an unfair verdict; some other ones wanted to shake his image in front of all those who gathered for this affair. But, unless Allah allowed them to only embellish things, and protected His Prophet, peace is upon him, from their enforcement, there would have been a serious problem.

﴾and they do not bring (aught) to perdition but their own souls﴿

[Al Nisaa – 113 ]

Allah is the origin of every single happiness, security, relief, balance and peace. If you harm His creatures, you will erect a barrier between you and Him. Consequently, you lead yourself away from the source of happiness and that will be quite a heavy price for you to pay.

﴾and they do not bring (aught) to perdition but their own souls, and they shall not harm you in any way ﴿

[Al Nisaa – 113 ]

… Because Allah keeps you safe.
The commander is the guarantor. When Allah sent this noble Prophet, He protected him from being killed or misled.

﴾and Allah will protect you from the people﴿

[Al Maaida - 67 ]

Why wasn’t the whole Quran revealed together?

Therefore, all of the other side's efforts have failed because Allah has protected the Prophet, peace be upon him.

﴾ and Allah has revealed to you the Book and the wisdom, and He has taught you what you did not know, and Allah's grace on you is very great﴿

[An Nisaa - 113 ]

Dear brother,
Here is a critical fact: the Quran could have been revealed all at once, but Allah's wisdom had pleased to reveal it intermittently according to the different events and occasions that occur. In other words, when something occurred, Allah revealed to His Prophet the way to deal with it properly. Therefore, the provisions of the Quran are closely linked to the facts, and this way is meant to strengthen the Prophet's heart.
You may read a book twice to prepare for an exam, but after a while you forget all of what you have read because these provisions remained theoretical and you did not deal with them in real life. However, if you experience a problem and badly need to know the related Islamic ruling, you search the books and ask the scholars before your find the proper ruling that fits with this particular problem. You shall never forget this ruling as it was closely associated to a certain problem, or, according to education specialists, to a certain experience.
If you did something wrong and had to pay quite a heavy price, you would never forget this lesson until you die. Therefore, any provision that is not associated to an experience or a specific suffering will remain theoretical and will be forgotten soon.

The Quran was revealed intermittently to strengthen the prophet:

It was possible for Allah to reveal the Quran to His Messenger all at once, written on paper and explaining everything clearly. But what Allah Almighty did is to reveal it according to the facts and incidents that occurred such as the lies (about Aisha), Al Obayrak's incident, the war and the peace, the victory and the defeat. Allah revealed the Quran intermittently to strengthen the heart of the Prophet. And you, dear brother, whether you are an educator, an instructor or a leader, you can not consolidate the facts that you teach to your fellow brother or to your student unless they are associated to a problem you suffer.
Many Hadiths speak about the Signs of the Hour, and, only twenty years ago, these hadiths had almost no effects on you. But when you see today the flagrant events the Prophet spoke about as if he is living with us, you interact with these hadiths in such a surprising way because they were supported by the facts, and this is what scholars call "the jurisprudence of life" which is quite different from the jurisprudence as written in books. For example, you always have the conviction that treating illness is a duty that could even be taken as a binding order. Then you come across a ruling stipulating that treating illness is not a duty. Will you accept it? You will definitely not because you have enough experience to say that inflammation must be treated and that there are diseases that could be easily healed. However, when a child of a poor family needs a treatment in a foreign country that costs eight million and his father is absolutely unable to do anything to treat him, not even if he sells all his belongings, such a problem is covered by this ruling. In other words, one does not interact with the ruling unless there is a problem. A woman came to the Prophet, peace be upon him, and told him that her son was afflicted by epilepsy. The Prophet said to her: "You may either be patient if you want, or I will pray for you." Scholars concluded from this hadith that treatment, either by prayers or spells is not an obligation but a choice. The same applies to costly treatment - when continuing it is not binding at all.

You forget what you learn and don’t interact with:

The rulings that lie in books remain with no effect on you unless you suffer and have to get back to books seeking a solution. Only then these rulings become unforgettable. I repeat: the provisions of jurisprudence which you shall always remember are those related to problems you experience. Some universities do not teach any lessons to their students but charge them to carry out some research, and whenever a student faces a serious obstacle he gets back to his teacher and asks him what to do.
Therefore: He who takes a country without war will easily give it away.
Everything that comes easily without suffering could be easily given away. The Western countries heavily paid the price of what they achieved today; there were wars, bloodshed and lots of suffering and this is why they have chosen to put recrimination aside, and co-operated to build their societies, so they possessed the World.

What happened in the era of the prophet was meant to set rules:

The wisdom behind revealing the Holly Quran intermittently is to keep its rulings and provisions safe from oblivion, and this is what to following verse means:

﴾Thus, that We may strengthen your heart by it ﴿

[Al Furqaan - 32]

Aïsha, may Allah be pleased with her, reported that Quraysh people were highly concerned about the Makhzoumi woman who stole, so they suggested to delegate Usama Ibnu Zayd, to plead with the Prophet, peace be upon him, for her. The Prophet, peace is upon him, said:

((Are you pleading against Allah's prescriptions?" Then he said: "What caused people before you to perish is that when a noble man steals, they let him go, but when a poor man steals, they punished him. I swear to Allah if Fatima, my daughter, steals I will cut her hand.))

[Boukhari, Muslem, At Tirmidhi, Abu Daoud, Ibnu Maja, Ahmad, Al Darmi ]

The events that occurred in the time of the Prophet happened on purpose in order to constitute the starting point of the divine rulings and the holy Revelation. Al Obayrak's story was the reason behind the revelation of these verses; a group of people tried to delude the Prophet, but Allah prevented them from enforcing him to act as per their will because He is protecting him:

﴾and Allah will protect you from the people﴿

[Al Maaida - 67 ]

This incident was meant to happen to prove that Allah is protecting His Prophet. The Quran was revealed intermittently according to the facts as experienced by the Prophet and these facts were highly elaborated by Allah Almighty.

﴾ and He has taught you what you did not know, and Allah's grace on you is very great﴿

[An Nisaa - 113]

When you know Allah, you obey Him and like being with Him:

Allah says:

﴾The provision of this world is short ﴿

[An Nisaa - 77 ]

If you own a billion, you shall die and leave it behind. The properties of this World are short. He who owns billions - how much does he actually eat? In how many beds does he sleep? How many outfits does he wear? How many cars does he drive? No matter how rich and wealthy you are, life does have a limit and your wealth is so little in Allah's consideration. However, if Allah taught you the Book and the wisdom and what you did not know, this is a great grace from Him. If a child, who is still in kindergarten, says "I possess a great sum of money", this sum may not exceed 200 pounds. But if a senior officer in the Pentagon says "We allocated a great sum for the war in Iraq", how great would it be in your opinion? Two billion maybe.
Look how differently you understood the word "great" when said by a child in kindergarten and a senior officer in the Pentagon. The meaning differs according to the speaker. Therefore if Allah says:

﴾ and He has taught you what you did not know, and Allah's grace on you is very great﴿

[An Nisaa – 113]

What is the greatest thing on Earth? Getting to know Allah. If you know Him, you will submit to His doctrine and enjoy His proximity in this world but also in the afterlife. This verse must be displayed in every Moslem's house:

﴾ and He has taught you what you did not know, and Allah's grace on you is very great﴿

[An Nisaa – 113]

Polytheism is omnipresent on Earth. Nine hundred million worship the cow. Others worship the stone, the sun, their desires and women. But if Allah allowed you to worship Him, then you are correctly guided.

﴾ and He has taught you what you did not know, and Allah's grace on you is very great﴿

[An Nisaa - 113 ]

In some countries – and this habit may have become extinct nowadays - when a man dies, his wife must be burned alive with his corps, while Allah's doctrine allowed Muslim women to remarry when their husbands passed away. Also, in some other countries, they eat rats, while Allah allowed us to eat the best food only. We live in such an unparalleled blessing and we should know this very well.
Dear brother,
The fact that Quran was revealed intermittently is very important. And the events that occurred at the time of the Prophet were meant to happen in order to constitute the basis of the Legislation.