Protecting one's honour

The issue is discussed in detail in the Tafseer of Surah Yusuf (AS). When Sayyidina Yusuf (AS) was imprisoned and he correctly interpreted the dream of the King he was permitted to go but he refused until his innocence was established [12:50]. The Ulama are united that if a person who does Dawah (or work of the Deen) and he/she is tarnished with accusations then he/she MUST protest his innocence. This is because if his/her reputation is tarnished to be liar (or whatever) then how would people heed to his call?

In Islamic Shariah for defamation a person is fully entitled to seek damage or closure from an Islamic court by referring the matter to a Qadhi.

Shaykh (Maulana) Ashraf Ali Thanwi (RA) makes an additional point that these attempts (of clearing against slander) should be done with the intention to protect the people from backbiting because people will inadvertently fall for the slander and start discussing rumours and slanders.

If a person is a witness that such and such is innocent then it is a DUTY to protect the honour of another Muslim.

To protect the honour of Islam, Allah (SWT) and Nabi (Sallallaho Alaihe Wassallam) is obviously a higher degree but we are discussing the matter here where someone who is involved in Dawah etc and his/her reputation is targeted.

The logical reason for this is very simple, you will see that enemies of Islam always target a person. Its from CIA playbook to try to destroy the credibility of a person and his/her stance falls away, it does 2 things:

1.       It devastates the morale of a person and very few people have the mental strength to sustain high pressure accusations and slander

2.       It distracts the person from their true purpose

Our (innocent) Brothers and Sisters try this tactic on believers in matters of disagreement which are trivial and turn disagreements into WARS of character. Shaykh (Mufti) A.S. Desai (HA) goes overboard with this technique you will notice that almost each and every disagreement is attacked with the most vile words, poison and hatred. For example he has disagreement with stunning and reading the Fatwaas even those who disagree with stunning will be hard pressed to back some of the word coming out, same for photography etc.

Muslims in the West are particularly sensitive to this sort of attack mode because we know how it works and what’s behind it. If you look at the refutation of Indian/Pakistani lower to mid-range Deobandi vs Ghair-Muqallid OR Deobandi vs Barelwee discussions all sides call each other all sorts of vile and hateful things.

Our (Deobandi) Akabir on the other hand neither practised this DESPICABLE tactic nor approved it and you will find decisive refutations which are completely and utterly empty of disrespect or hatred.

Disagreement is permitted and just because someone is disagreeing with you doesn’t mean he hates you or is lying or slandering because there is a genuinely possibility that a person has misunderstood OR that he/she has actually understood it perfectly well.

I have actually spoken to Shaykh (Mufti) A. S. Deasi (HA) several times as to why he does this and he has told me his reasons and over the years I have kind of figured his personality out but the rest of his fanboys and girls are just shallow.