It is imperative that national security professionals with responsibility for defending the U.S. Constitution from encroachment by shariah understand that, under Islamic law, lying is not only permissible, but obligatory for Muslims in some situations. This complicates efforts to understand the true nature of the threat– and to have confidence in those Muslims at home and abroad with whom the government hopes to make common cause in countering it.
What is particularly confusing is the fact that shariah has two standards of truth and falsehood: In general, the Quran disapproves of Muslims deceiving other Muslims. It declares, “Surely God guides not him who is prodigal and a liar.”140 Yet, Quranic passages and statements attributed to Mohammed in reliable hadiths provide exceptions even to the usual prohibitions on lying to fellow Muslims.
For example, Reliance of the Traveler provides practical examples of where lying even to Muslims can be appropriate: “Giving directions to someone who wants to do wrong…” is one such example, explaining that “It is not permissible to give directions and the like to someone intending to perpetrate a sin, because it is helping another to commit disobedience.”141 Such disobedience, as understood under Islamic law, is defined as: “Giving directions to wrongdoers includes: (1) showing the way to policemen and tyrants when they are going to commit injustice and corruption.”142
Reliance also shows in quotes from Mohammed that there are other grounds for lying even to Muslims:
“He who settles disagreements between people to bring about good or says something commendable is not a liar.”143
And “I did not hear him permit untruth in anything people say, except for three things: war, settling disagreements, and a man talking with his wife or she with him (in smoothing over differences.)”144
These exceptions are sufficiently broad to cover most instances in which lying would be expedient. Shariah demands, moreover, that its adherents lie where it will be advantageous in dealings with infidels whose submission is an obligation. Consider the legal guidance provided in the authoritative Reliance of the Traveler. In Book R, “Holding One’s Tongue,” one finds sections on “Lying” (r8.0) and “Permissible Lying,”(r8.2).
These cite the iconic Islamic legal jurist Imam Abu Hamid Ghazali:
This is an explicit statement that lying is sometimes permissible for a given interest…When it is possible to achieve such an aim by lying but not by telling the truth, it is permissible to lie if attaining the goal is permissible (N: i.e., when the purpose of lying is to circumvent someone who is preventing one from doing something permissible) and obligatory to lie if the goal is obligatory.145
An example of the Quranic basis for the shariah standard on lying is: “Allah has already sanctioned for you the dissolution of your vows.”146 Indeed, in some places, it is Allah himself who is described approvingly as a capricious deceiver: “Say, ‘God leads whosoever He wills astray.”147
As noted above, Sahih Bukhari writes that Mohammed, too, authorized a permissive attitude toward telling the truth: “The Prophet said, ‘If I take an oath and later find something else better than that, then I do what is better and expiate my oath.”148
Besides lying, there is also guidance in Reliance about giving a misleading impression: “Scholars say that there is no harm in giving a misleading impression if required by an interest countenanced by Sacred Law.”149