Q. I was watching a movie the other day, Traitor and in one part it says you can lie about being Muslim to protect your self. Is that true? What if there was a really racist guy and you told him that you weren’t Muslim, is that bad? My father told me that there is a certain thing you have to do to make up for it. Is there?

Q: I was just joking that I am christian, is that haram. I don’t become a christian, right? Or do i??

Answer:

??? ?????? ????????? ???? ?????? ????????????? ?????? ???? ???????? ?????????? ? ????????????? ?????????????? ????????? ???? ?????? ??????????? ???????? ???????????? ??????? ????? ??????? ???????? ??????? ????????

Whosoever disbelieves in Allah after having believed, not the one who is compelled while his heart is at rest on account of faith, but the one who opens (his) heart to disbelief—on upon such participants is the wrath of Allah, and they shall have a grievous chastisement.

The Tafseer of this ayah establishes that if a person makes a claim of disbelief in a situation in which their life is threatened and the oppressed is certain they are going to be killed or apprehended with grave detrimental consequences, as a result of their faith, then under such circumstances a person can claim that they are disbelievers.

 

Under conditions that are not tragic, or if there is a possibility that one is not going to be attacked, or a possibility that a threat would not be carried out, then to make such a claim jeopardizes a person’s faith. Under such (voluntary) conditions, utterances of kufr would make a person a kaffir.

 

Making a claim of disbelief as a result of mere mockery has many serious adverse consequences. Amongst them, one becomes a kaffir, an invalidation of a person nikah takes place, producing of children in such a state would cause the child to be illegitimate; a believer cannot share inheritance to a disbeliever, etc. The solution would be for one to reaffirm their faith in the presence of Muslim witnesses.

 

One must be cautious as to the words they utter. One cannot lie about their faith. To do so would have a devastating impact of one’s belief.

 

Allah Certainly Knows Best.

p.s. The imaam sincerely apologizers for the extensive delay in responding to the above questions.