Chapter IV: Poverty and Renunciation
Words carrying dual meanings may be spoken incase of a crisis. Hazrat Omar said: A man by uttering a dual word saves himself from falsehood. The following are the illustrations.
The sage Mutarref was summoned once by the tyrant ruler jiyad. He asked him: Why have you come so late? He used a word conveying dual meanings saying: After going from your Darber, I could not raise my side from bed. God now raised it up for me. The ruler was given to understand that he was ill.
Mu'az-b-Jabal was Tahsbilder of Hazrat Omar. On his return from his station of office, his wife asked him: Have you brought anything as others bring many things? He said: I could not bring anything as there was guard with me. This guard means God. If any man came to enquire about Ibrahim in his house and if he did not wish to see him, he sent his maid servant to say: Enquire about him in the prostration place (mosque). The Prophet said: The greatest calumny is to claim another as father without his own father, to say that one has seen what he has not seen, or to say 'someone said what nobody said. He also said: He who narrates his dream in a false manner will be asked to bind two seeds of wheat on the Resurrection Day, but he will never be able to do it.
(15) Back-biting: Know, O dear readers, that there came numerous warnings in Shariat regarding back-biting. Many people are accustomed to back-biting and very few men are free from it. God says: Don't back-bite one another. Do you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? Rather you abhor it - 49 : 12 Q.
The Prophet said: Wea.th, life and honour of every Muslim are unlawful for another Muslim. God joins honour with wealth
110 The Book of Destructive evils Vol-IH
and life. The Prophet said: Beware of back-biting as it is a more heinous sin than fornication. If a man commits fornication and makes repentance, God may accept his repentance, but the repentance of back-biting is not accepted till the back-bited man pardons him. The Prophet said: Don't hate one another, don't envy one another, don't sell over the sale to another, don't dispute with one another and don't back-bite one another. The servants of God are brethren to one another. The Prophet said: In the night in which I was taken to heaven, I passed by a pray of men who where scratching the flesh of their faces with the ends of their nails. I asked: O Gabriel, who are they? He said: They are those who used to roam with slander of the people and ruin theft honour.