Shaykh `Aa'id Abdullah al-Qarnee
When it is said to them: "Do not make mischief on the Earth," they say: "Why?
We only want to make peace." Beware, they are the ones that cause mischief but
they do not realise. [Soorah al-Baqarah (2):11-12]
You will find him striving with slander between people or giving false
testimony or causing fighting between two brothers or a father and his son. He
exerts himself in defamation and he pulls down and burns the towns, just as the
straw in the fire, destroying the society. When one says to him: "O so and so!
Woe be to you from Allaah! Fear Allaah!" He replies: "By Allaah, I do not wish
anything but peace! Allaah knows that I want to join this family and this
society and this tribe." But Allaah knows that he intends corruption.
Most of the mischief caused between families or tribes is due to these
hypocrites. You will see one of them either giving a false witness or
exaggerating or trying to achieve his aims with hypocrisy.
Allaah, the Sublime, says:
There is a type of man whose speech about the life of this world will dazzle
you and he calls Allaah to witness as to what is in his heart, yet he is the
most contentious of enemies. When he turns his back, his aim is to spread
mischief everywhere through the earth and to destroy crops and cattle. But
Allaah does not love mischief. [Soorah al-Baqarah (2):204-205]
Causing mischief is sign of hypocrisy. When this mischief-making hypocrite
sees that there has been some ill-feeling or misunderstand ing between a man and
his brother, he enters into the matter and says "What happened between you! I
heard that such and such took place between you and this really hurt me badly. I
couldn't even sleep last night!" Yet he did sleep the night before and he was so
immersed in his sleep and his snoring that he didn't even know where he was
sleeping. On the outside he claims that he desires nothing but peace and
reformation but Allaah knows his hidden, twisted desires and intentions.
