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A big staple in Christianity's view of God is that it is impossible for God to lie and that it is always wrong for a Christian to lie/deceive.
Is this also true in Islam and stated as such in the Quran? I have heard that lying is OK in Allah's eyes if it is to bring someone to an embrace of Islam or for other purposes. Is this true?
I have heard that lying is OK in Allah's eyes if it is to bring someone to an embrace of Islam or for other purposes.
It is not allowed to lie in order to make someone to embrace Islam. What if he finds out about the lie after he had become Muslim? Lying is one of the major sins. The Prophet had forbidden even telling lies just so as to make people laugh. Even lying to a small child is forbidden:
Abu Dawood, 4991: It was narrated that Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: ‘Whoever says to a child, ‘Come here and take this,’ then does not give him something, this is counted as a lie.’”
However, there are some situations where "lying" is permissible. For example, it is permitted to tell a lie in order to save the life of an innocent person, it is permitted to "lie" during war as a strategy (for example, what a captured soldier might tell the enemy fighters) and it is also not counted as a "lie" when a husband tells his wife she's beautiful, or a woman tells her husband he's smart even though the reality might be different!
Muslim vol 6. Hadith 2605: Humaid bin Abd Ar-Rahman bin Awf narrated that his mother Umm Kulthum bint Uqabah bin Abi Mu’ait (who was one of the first Muhajir women who swore allegiance to the Prophet, PBUH) told him that she heard Messenger of Allah (PBUH) say: “He is not a liar who reconciles between people saying good things and conveying good things.”Ibn Shihab said that she said: “I did not hear of any concession being granted concerning anything that people call lies except in three cases: War, Reconciling among people & What a man says to his wife or a woman says to her husband.”
