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[quote][b][violet]jk/many thnx for the postings
pls keep contributing [:)]
however it wud b nice to keep them summarized as generally members do not read v. long postings
short n relevant messages r easily digested[/violet][/b]

[blue]There is no denying the fact that Islam never condones telling lies in normal circumstances. Telling untruth is an universally acknowledged evil and religious guidance does nothing but to refresh our awareness bestowed upon humans innately.

The question that needs to be addressed is that whether joking is lying or not. We do not know that in any of the languages of the word take the word lying and joking interchangeably. When I am lying I am not joking and when I am joking I am not lying. Lying is defined as:

to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive (Merriam-Webster's) 
to say or write something which is not true in order to deceive someone: (Cambridge Dic) 
The Arabic counterpart of the verb is kidhb which means telling untruth. Though the classical dictionaries do not precisely express the intention of deception but the difference is clear to them all and they do not consider jokes as lies. Ibn e Manzoor in his Lisaan al Arab writes:

And a Hadith says: lying is not acceptable but in three cases - - -. It is said the Prophet (sws) meant use (trick) of the language where a statement is untrue to the mind of the listener and is true from the point of view of the speaker. This is same as his (sws) saying: indeed lying is indispensable in such statements. (Imam Malik has ascribed this saying to Hazrat Umar rta) (Lisaan al Arab entery K Z B.

Please note that playing jokes with someone and telling such untruth is something different from narrating such a story to amuse others. In this case we even reveal the intention and the reality of the matter before narrating that particular story. This does not way fall within even that kind of jokes which  has been ascribed to the prophet (sws) in a posting above.

Of course we must not indulge in such frivolous talk and take delight only in them forgetting all the purposeful activities but it would not be appropriate to render jokes and jests tantamount to lying.[/blue]

[b][violet]The purpose of introducing this section to the site is to keep smiling [:)] while we do our serious course studies insha'Allah
wassalaam/peace 'n regards[/violet][/b]

Edited by: hkhan on Monday, July 12, 2004 11:32 PM[/quote]

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