By Dr. ‘Abdul Kareem Bakkaar

The greatness of a person, my sons and daughters, lies in the greatness of what he believes in, what he is willing to sacrifice for, and what he defends. Our true religion, to which we proudly belong, urges us to love and respect the truth and embrace it as it is, without any polishing or distortion.

Indeed, one of the Names of Allah, the Exalted, is Al-Haqq (The Truth), our Prophet Muhammad was sent with the truth, and the heavens and earth were created and established upon the truth.

Verily, verifying the authenticity of the information that we hear or read is the first step we need to take to determine our stance towards it and start our journey in supporting and defending the truth.

Nowadays, you hear much circulated news and read much content online, and you notice that a great part of such content is of unknown origin, some of its writers use pseudonyms, and the chains of transmission of most narratives that we hear are unknown.

All this urges us not to rush into believing everything we hear and hasten to convey it and post it so as not to become accomplices in circulating fake and unfounded news, and you know what Allah, the Exalted, Says in this regard; He Says (what means):

·      {O you who have believed, if there comes to you a wicked person with information, investigate, lest you harm a people out of ignorance and become, over what you have done, regretful.} [Quran 49:6]

·      {O you who have believed, when you go forth [to fight] in the cause of Allah , investigate; and do not say to one who gives you [a greeting of] peace, "You are not a believer," aspiring for the goods of worldly life...} [Quran 4:94]

The second verse is a divine directive for the believers during wartime not to hasten the killing before it becomes clear to them who is a believer and who is not.

What does this mean for my daughters and sons?

It means the following:

1- Train yourselves not to believe everything you hear, start questioning the authenticity of the information that reaches you, and judge for yourself. Train yourselves as well to convey less of what you hear; the Prophet said: “It is enough lying for a man to transmit everything he hears.”

2- Always look for the source of the information that you hear, try to identify the people transmitting it, and verify their credibility and trustworthiness.

3- The authenticity of what you watch is often greater and stronger than the authenticity of what you hear. Also, the longer the chain of narrators and transmitters of the information is, the greater the possibility of error and misunderstanding.

4- Countless experiences and incidents prove that oral transmission tends to be less accurate as narrators add to the orally transmitted messages according to their own understanding, moods, and personal whims. Therefore, do not accept the narrations you listen to the letter, and do not trust all their details.

5- Whenever the information sounds odd and unfamiliar, we should stop and investigate it further because much of such information is often incorrect or exaggerated.

6- The exact magnitude of a matter and the extent to which it is true or false can only be known after it ends, and therefore, you should wait before issuing judgment until the speaker completes his statement and the writer concludes his work, which he might publish in several parts.