Hadith 5

Abu Dharr (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that he heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: “If a man knowingly claims to belong to someone other than his (real) father, he has committed an act of unbelief. Whoever lays claim to what is not his is not one of us, and let him prepare his seat in the Fire. And if someone calls another man a disbeliever, or says, ‘Enemy of Allah,’ when he is not so, the accusation will rebound upon the speaker.”

This is Muslim’s wording; al-Bukhari transmits a similar version.

Unfamiliar terms:
• “Let him prepare his seat” (wal-yatabawwaʾ): that is, let him take up a dwelling place.
• “Will rebound upon him” (ḥāra ʿalayhi): meaning, it will return to him. Allah the Exalted says, “He thought that he would never return” (Q 84:14).

Overall meaning:
This ḥadith carries a severe threat and unequivocal warning for anyone who commits one of these three deeds—so how grave is the state of whoever commits them all?

1. A person knows his true father and established lineage yet disowns it, pretending ignorance and claiming descent from someone else or from another tribe.

2. While fully aware, he claims what is not his—whether lineage, wealth, rights, a profession, or some personal quality—so as to profit from the lie and win people’s favor. He may, for instance, claim expertise in religion, medicine, or anything else to earn gain, thus causing great harm and danger. Or he may litigate over people’s property before judges on the basis of deliberate falsehood. Such a person faces a terrible punishment: the Prophet ﷺ has disowned him and told him to choose for himself a dwelling in Hellfire. How much worse when he buttresses his lies with perjured oaths!

3. He accuses an innocent Muslim of disbelief, or of being a Jew, a Christian, or an enemy of Allah. The slander will recoil upon the accuser, for he is more deserving of these vile descriptions than the unsuspecting Muslim he maligns.

Lessons derived from the ḥadith:
1- The narration proves the prohibition of denying one’s known lineage and affiliating oneself with another, whether it concerns one’s immediate father or forefathers, or abandoning one’s own tribe for another. Such behavior leads to serious evils: loss of lineage, the intermingling of unmarriageable relatives with others, the severing of kinship bonds, and more.

2- The ḥadith conditions liability on knowledge, for the distance of generations and remoteness of ancestors may bring about confusion or ignorance. Allah does not burden a soul beyond its capacity, nor does He hold people accountable for genuine forgetfulness or error.