The Decision to Tell the Truth

And then Kaʿb ibn Mālik says: when I heard the news that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was on his way back, I became very anxious, and I was thinking about lying, trying to fabricate an excuse to escape the anger of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) when I met him. And he said: I was seeking the counsel of everyone in my family whose opinion I trusted. And then, when I was told that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was almost here, all of the falsehood and those thoughts left my mind, and I knew that I was not going to get out of this trouble at all by lying; and I decided that I was going to speak the truth.

And here one can see Kaʿb ibn Mālik, this righteous and great Companion, falling into deep trouble and committing a serious mistake. But because of his īmān, and because of the tarbiyah that his īmān gave him, he was able to pull himself, through his good deeds, out of this hole he had dug for himself. The decision Kaʿb ibn Mālik made to speak the truth and not to lie — as will be seen — is what saved him from this big problem he had got himself into. And one will see how serious staying behind is.

Wa aṣbaḥa Rasūlu Allāhi qādimā, wa kāna idhā qadima min safarin badaʾa bi-al-masjidi fa-rakaʿa fīhi rakʿatayn, thumma jalasa li-al-nās. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) arrived in the morning, and when he arrived from a journey he would first go to the masjid and pray two rakʿahs, and then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) would sit down for the people — because the people would come and meet the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him); so he would sit in the masjid, and they would come and meet him in the masjid. That was the gathering place for the people, the masjid.

Fa-lammā faʿala dhālika jāʾahu al-mukhallafūna fa-ṭafiqū yaʿtadhirūna ilayhi wa yaḥlifūna lah, wa kānū biḍʿatan wa thamānīna rajulā. And when he did that, those who had stayed behind came to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), giving their excuses and swearing, taking an oath in the name of Allah, that they were speaking the truth; and they were more than eighty men. Fa-qabila minhum Rasūlu Allāhi ʿalāniyatahum, wa bāyaʿahum wa-staghfara lahum, wa wakala sarāʾirahum ilā Allāh. So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) accepted their excuses — he took what was apparent; he took their words at face value — and he took their pledge of allegiance, their bayʿah, and asked Allah to forgive them, and he left the insides of their hearts to Allah.

And this is a general rule that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) applied: he would go by what was apparent. And this is a very important rule, with a lot of implications. We judge people according to what we see: if we see īmān outwardly, we judge that they are believers, even if they are disbelievers in their hearts; if what we see from them are acts of disbelief, kufr, then we judge them according to that, even if they are believers in their hearts. That is the rule. And then we leave what is inside the hearts to Allah on the Day of Judgement. But the rules that apply in the dunyā apply to what is apparent, and not to what is hidden — and this holds both for Islam and for kufr — the hidden being judged not by the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) but by Allah (ʿazza wa jall) on the Day of Judgement.

Fa-jiʾtuh, fa-lammā sallamtu ʿalayhi tabassama tabassuma al-mughḍab, thumma qāla: taʿāl. Fa-jiʾtu amshī ḥattā jalastu bayna yadayh, fa-qāla lī: mā khallafak? — so I came to him, and when I greeted him he smiled the smile of an angry man, and then he said: come. So I came walking until I sat before him, and he said to me: what kept you behind?

Kaʿb ibn Mālik had thought about this question deeply, and he had decided that he was going to speak the truth. And then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said to him: a-lam takun qad ibtaʿta ẓahrak? — had you not bought your mount? So this shows that Kaʿb ibn Mālik was not completely ignoring his duty: he had actually tried to prepare, and he had gone as far as buying a mount. It was not as though he was completely oblivious to the situation. No — he was thinking about it; and, as has been seen, he was so concerned, and he would make the niyyah every day that he was going to get ready, but he did not.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said to him: had you not bought your mount? He said: balā, yes. And then he said: innī wa-llāhi law jalastu ʿinda ghayrika min ahli al-dunyā la-raʾaytu an sa-akhruju min sakhaṭihi bi-ʿudhr, wa la-qad uʿṭītu jadalā. He said: by Allah, if I had sat before anyone else from the people of the dunyā, I would have thought that I could escape his anger with an excuse. Wa la-qad uʿṭītu jadalā: he said, and I have eloquence; I have the ability to argue. Kaʿb ibn Mālik was a poet: he was one of the famous and important poets of Madīnah who defended Islam and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) with their poetry. The most famous poets of Madīnah were Ḥassān ibn Thābit, Kaʿb ibn Mālik and ʿAbdullāh ibn Rawāḥah; so he was one of the three leading poets of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). So he is saying: wa la-qad uʿṭītu jadalā — I have been gifted with the ability to debate and argue. He was a man who could convince you of his point of view. In other words, he is saying: I could, O Messenger of Allah, give excuses that would sound valid and convincing; but I realise that what I told you would eventually be exposed, because you are the Messenger of Allah; my lie would not get very far, and I would be exposed. So he is saying that he is going to speak the truth.

Now, with the statement of Kaʿb ibn Mālik — wa la-qad uʿṭītu jadalā, I have been given the ability to argue and convince — nowadays many arguments are made to excuse oneself from fulfilling one's duties towards Allah and the religion of Allah. And the most convincing arguments come from people who have a background in knowledge, people who are well versed in the evidences: they have the ability to pull out some āyāt of the Qur'an, and pull out some aḥādīth, and pull out some statements, and then bring them together in a way that may sound convincing, presenting an argument that gives them an excuse. For example, you will have people say: we are in Makkah. And you will have others say: we are in the weak stage, so we need to apply the rules that apply to the weak stage.

Now the thing here is: yes, there was a situation, once upon a time, fourteen hundred years ago, when the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was in Makkah, in which they applied the rules of weakness before they went to Madīnah. So a person may come today and say: we are in Makkah. So you go to that brother and tell him: well, fine; if you are in Makkah, then why do you not go to Madīnah? The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), when he was in Makkah, struggled to go to Madīnah; so if you are now in the Makkan stage, why do you not struggle to go to the Madīnan stage? The thing is that he would not want to. Why? Because the pay in Madīnah is less than the pay in Makkah; life in Makkah is more comfortable than it is going to be in Madīnah; and therefore this person is not willing to make the move. The person will say: we are in the stage of weakness.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) — yes, at one point he was in Makkah, and the Muslims were in Makkah; but they did everything humanly possible for them to do in order to get out of that situation. If one looks at the sīrah of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), it is fascinating how the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) would knock on every door possible to find a way out of Makkah. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) would meet the tribes in every season of Ḥajj, asking them to give him support so that he could make hijrah to them. And when you do something once, and twice, and three times, and every time you get the same answer — rejection — you end up giving up. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) never gave up, and he would do it year in and year out; and he would do it with the first tribe, the second tribe, the third tribe, the fourth tribe, the fifth tribe, and never give up — until eventually he met the Anṣār, and they are the ones who provided him with a base from which to spread the daʿwah. So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was trying every avenue possible to get out of Makkah and go to Madīnah; he tried every avenue possible to get out of the stage of weakness into the stage of strength.

So Kaʿb ibn Mālik is saying that he was not going to use his abilities in argument and debate here. He said: wa la-in ḥaddathtuka ḥadītha ṣidqin tajidu ʿalayya fīhi, innī la-arjū fīhi ʿafwa Allāh — and if I tell you the truth, even though it may make you angry with me, I hope in it for the forgiveness of Allah. Lā wa-llāhi mā kāna lī min ʿudhr — I have no excuse. He made it clear to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) that he had no excuse for staying behind. Wa-llāhi mā kuntu qaṭṭu aqwā wa lā aysara minnī ḥīna takhallaftu ʿank — I was never stronger, or more able to go out, than when I stayed behind from you. Fa-qāla Rasūlu Allāh: ammā hādhā fa-qad ṣadaq, fa-qum ḥattā yaqḍiya Allāhu fīk — the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: as for this one, he has spoken the truth; so get up, until Allah decides concerning you.