LessonsThe Grave Warning Against Lying About the Prophet: Narration, Intent and Critical DutyQuiz

According to al-Nawawī, the Sunni theologians define *kidhb* as reporting something contrary to the facts, whether the discrepancy arises deliberately or inadvertently. The Muʿtazilite definition he discusses makes **deliberateness** a condition for calling the report *kidhb*. This is a distinction about whether a report corresponds to reality; the reporter's moral liability is a separate question.

The qualifiers تَعَمَّدَ and مُتَعَمِّدًا therefore matter: the severe warning concerns intentionally fabricating an attribution to the Prophet. A person who makes an inadvertent factual error is not thereby a deliberate hadith fabricator, although the error must be corrected once recognized and transmission must be handled carefully.

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False reporting and the condition of culpable intent

The Grave Warning Against Lying About the Prophet: Narration, Intent and Critical Duty

According to al-Nawawī, the Sunni theologians define *kidhb* as reporting something contrary to the facts, whether the discrepancy arises deliberately or inadvertently. The Muʿtazilite definition he discusses makes **deliberateness** a condition for calling the report *kidhb*. This is a distinction about whether a report corresponds to reality; the reporter's moral liability is a separate question.

The qualifiers تَعَمَّدَ and مُتَعَمِّدًا therefore matter: the severe warning concerns intentionally fabricating an attribution to the Prophet. A person who makes an inadvertent factual error is not thereby a deliberate hadith fabricator, although the error must be corrected once recognized and transmission must be handled carefully.