VERIFY BEFORE YOU SHARE || Example #3

I previously shared the following statement on a channel and attributed it directly to Imām Muqbil—may Allāh have mercy on him—said:

“You (i.e., a man) should NOT be alone with a woman, even if it be for teaching her the Qurʾān.”

[Tuḥfat al-Mujīb ʿalā Asʾilat al-Ḥāḍir wa-al-Gharīb, p. 252]

Source: https://t.me/Muqbil_Eng/239

Upon returning to the original Arabic source and checking the passage directly, I found that this attribution requires correction.

Source Investigation

The wording is indeed found in Tuḥfat al-Mujīb on the referenced page.

However, Imām Muqbil—may Allah have mercy on him—did not present these words as his own statement.

Rather, he more accurately, said:

يَقُولُ بَعْضُ السَّلَفِ: لَا تَخْلُوَنَّ بِامْرَأَةٍ وَلَوْ أَنْ تُعَلِّمَهَا الْقُرْآنَ.

“Some of the Salaf say: Do not ever be alone with a woman, even if it be for teaching her the Qurʾān.”

The original English translation therefore misconstrued the passage by presenting words which Imām Muqbil—may Allah have mercy on him—was transmitting from some of the Salaf as though they were his own direct statement.

There is a big difference between:

“Imām Muqbil said…”

and:

“Imām Muqbil said, some of the Salaf say…”

Removing those words of the statement changes the attribution of the statement, even if the remainder of the translation is accurate.

Accordingly, I have corrected what I previously published and do not wish for the inaccurate attribution to continue spreading from this channel.

The correct wording is:

Imām Muqbil—may Allah have mercy on him—said:

“Some of the Salaf say: ‘Do not ever be alone with a woman, even if it be for teaching her the Qurʾān.’”

[Tuḥfat al-Mujīb ʿalā Asʾilat al-Ḥāḍir wa-al-Gharīb, p. 252]

Why This Example Is Important

This is a particularly useful example of why verification cannot stop at seeing a book title and page number.

The book was correct. The page number was correct. The statement was genuinely found there. The general meaning was correct. Yet the attribution was still inaccurate.

A person who merely checked whether the words existed somewhere on page 252 could therefore conclude that the post was verified, while still missing the actual error.

True verification requires reading what the author himself wrote, and examining enough of the surrounding passage to understand how the statement is being presented.

Before You Share: Questions for Those Giving Daʿwah Online

1. If we rely only on an existing English translation without returning to the Arabic, how do we know the translator preserved the speaker, context, restriction, and intended meaning?

2. If even a genuine book and correct page number can accompany an inaccurate attribution, should a reference alone ever stop us from checking the original?

3. If you regularly publish the speech of scholars, should preserving a direct and verifiable source not be one of the basic mandatory responsibilities of your daʿwah? Without it, how are mistakes supposed to be discovered and corrected?

4. How is anyone supposed to know whether a quotation attributed to a Shaykh is genuine—let alone whether the translation is accurate—when no means of verification has been provided?

5. Have we considered what happens after our post leaves our own channel? It may be copied, screenshotted, translated again, reposted elsewhere, and preserved for years. If the original source was never attached, one careless mistake can become a widespread false attribution.

6. If our work may become the source relied upon by hundreds of people after us, does that not increase our responsibility to make it verifiable from the beginning?

7. I myself took this quotation from a brother whom I considered trustworthy and, because of that, did not personally verify it before sharing it. When I later returned to the original source, I found that the attribution was inaccurate. Does this not show that trust in a transmitter—no matter how reliable we consider him—should not replace him preserving the original source of his benefit?

Everyone can make mistakes. This is precisely why those involved in daʿwah should not ask others to rely upon their reliability alone, but should preserve the source so that what they transmit can be independently checked and corrected too.

This is especially directed at those involved in online daʿwah who regularly post:

“Shaykh so-and-so said…”

and then provide nothing by which the reader can establish whether the scholar actually said it.

This is blameworthy carelessness.

You are attaching words to a person of knowledge. Those words may then spread across Telegram, WhatsApp, websites, videos, books, and future translations.

If you make a mistake and provide no source, you have made it unnecessarily difficult for everyone after you to discover and correct it.

If you translate or share the speech of the scholars, preserve the direct source wherever reasonably possible, provided doing so does not direct people towards something impermissible.

If sharing the original link is unsuitable, preserve the evidence another way:

• Provide the Arabic passage.

• Attach the relevant audio.

• Give the timestamp.

• Link the source.

• Share an image of the page.

Give people something by which your work can actually be checked.

The purpose is not merely to show that you have a reference.

It is to make what you transmit verifiable and correctable.

Mistakes will occur. But there is a difference between making a mistake while preserving the source for others to check, and spreading material in a way that leaves no practical path for correction.

May Allāh guide us all.

Source: https://t.me/MarkazAbuHurayrah/1896