Answer
Wa `alaykum As-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
Slandering people is really a grave sin in Islam that necessitates their forgiveness. You have to seek Allah’s forgiveness first and then seek that sister’s forgiveness by any means in order not to be taken accountable for this sin in the hereafter.
In his response to your question, Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and an Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states:
You have committed a grave offence by making this false allegation. Allah Almighty says in the Qur’an,
“And as for those who malign believing men and believing women without their having done any wrong – they surely burden themselves with the guilt of calumny, and [thus] with a flagrant sin!” (Al-Ahzab 33:58)
You have to seek Allah’s forgiveness first and then ask forgiveness of the person you have harmed. I would urge you to do this as soon as possible.
The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “…The really bankrupt person of my community is the one who has lots of prayers, fasts and charities to his credit, and yet he is guilty of reviling another, slandering another, stealing from another, shedding the blood of another, and beating yet another. Hence the rewards of his good deeds will be distributed among his victims. If, however, they are exhausted and yet their dues are still unpaid for, their misdeeds will be imposed on him, and he will be flung to the fire pit!” (Muslim)
Almighty Allah knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.