Asalaamu Alaykom, I hope that Allah will make your formspring beneficial for all who ask questions. I wanted to know if you could share with me the consequences of giving people wrong advise.
Walekumsalaam, and thank you for the dua! We hope so, too, Insh’Allah :).
We’re going to take a logical approach to this. Helping others is a positive thing to do in Islam, so if the intention behind the advice is to guide someone in the right direction or to benefit them and it accidentally turns out to be incorrect advice (stock market, etc.), we doubt that there are any serious consequences. This is keeping in mind, of course, that when you give the advice you’ve sufficiently researched it and/or followed it yourself and have in your heart the best of intentions for the recipient. Hadith tells us that the Prophet SAW said “None of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.” Extra precautions must be taken to make sure you’re correct, however, when you are guiding someone in the matter of religion, since it is such an important part of life and there is little room for error. If you find out that you’ve misguided someone, let him know, because restoring the rights of a person is an important part of Islam. You can also decrease chances of misguiding someone by remembering basic Islamic principles when you advise them about worldly matters.
The other face of this question would be intentionally or carelessly misguiding someone in matters of the world or in matters of faith, and for this there ARE serious consequences. There are an abundance of stories in the Quran about such people and the punishments to which they were/will be subjected. Allah says in Surah An-Nahl, “On the Day of Resurrection, they will bear their own burden in full and some of the burden of those whom they misled without knowledge. (16:25)” In Surah Al-A’raf, He states, “Those who worshipped the calf did indeed incur the wrath of their Rabb and disgrace in this life; thus do We recompense those who invent falsehoods. (7:152)” Immediately after, however, Allah states, “For those who do evil deeds, then repent and become true believers thereafter, your Rabb is most surely the Forgiving, Merciful. (7:153)” It is up to Allah to forgive these sorts of mistakes, and someone who truly repents after misguiding his brother and reforms will Insh’Allah be forgiven.
