about him constitutes slander against him, as He, glorified be He, says:

“Why, when you heard it, did you not say, ‘It is not for us to speak of this. Glory be to You! This is a tremendous slander’?”

And Allah Most High says:

“Nor bring any slander they fabricate between their hands and feet.”

An authentic hadith states:

“The Jews are a people given to slander.”

Thus, all lying about a person is forbidden, whether that person is Muslim or unbeliever, righteous or wicked. Fabricating lies about a believer, however, is more grievous. Indeed, all lying is forbidden. Nevertheless, equivocal speech is permitted when there is a need recognized by Islamic law. It may also be called lying, because a speaker intends a meaning by his words and wants the listener to understand that meaning. If his words do not accord with what he means, that is an outright lie. If they accord with what he means, but not with what the listener understands, that is equivocal speech. It is lying from the standpoint of what is understood, though not from the standpoint of the legitimate purpose intended.

An example is the saying of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“Abraham told only three lies, all for Allah’s sake: his words concerning Sarah, ‘My sister’; his saying, ‘Rather, this largest one of them did it’; and his saying, ‘I am ill.’”

All three are instances of equivocal speech. Scholars have cited them as evidence that a person suffering injustice may use equivocation: that is, intend by his words a meaning that the wording can bear, even if the listener does not understand it. This is why some of the