Stories That Should Not Be Dwelt On

The sixth: we shouldn't talk about such stuff and spread it, and this is talking about all stories of immorality. Sometimes brothers or sisters would get together and talk about the fasād that is in the Ummah, and they would bring up all of these examples of it, and it would go beyond what is necessary to make the point. If the point is that there is fasād in the Ummah, fine; one could give examples about it. But sometimes one feels that there is this desire of talking about these stories, these stories of immorality. There is some attraction. Some people have this attraction to such stories, and they just love talking about them. Allah says, "Surely, those who like that lewdness spreads among the believers, for them there is painful punishment in this world and the Hereafter. Allah knows, and you do not know" (24:19).

So it is like: "Oh, do you know what's happening in that mall? The Muslim kids go there and Muslim sisters go there, and this and this happens, and they go to nightclubs and they drink" — and all of this fasād is happening. And sometimes it is not to make a point that there is fasād; it is just to fulfil this desire or lust of talking about this stuff, and that is a very dangerous thing. That is waswasah from Shayṭān.

If there is some evil going on in a certain community and nobody knows about it, sometimes it is better for the community, especially when it comes to these stories of immorality, of zinā, adultery, and boyfriend or girlfriend stories. Because the more we talk about this stuff, the more we start believing that the community is corrupt. And if we have that mindset, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. So it is better for us to assume that, no, things are fine, things are good; and if this belief is common among everyone, then the young brothers and young sisters wouldn't want to break that. But if everybody assumes that, well, everything is broken, everything is destroyed, then they would try to grow up and fulfil what they believe the community is.

Now, with this issue, there is a fine line between when it is considered to be spreading stories and publicising stories of immorality, and when it is forbidding evil. So one wants to strike a balance. One doesn't want to fool oneself into believing that everything is fine. These words should not be taken out of context to mean that everyone should just hush, hush everything and pretend that everything is okay. That is not what is meant. What is meant is that one shouldn't exaggerate, and one shouldn't go to extreme lengths of talking about this stuff. One should only talk about it as is necessary.