بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum
I pray that you are well.
Occasionally, I have clients who asked me if he/she should tape his/her spouse and worse when they brought me tape recordings of their spouses/partners. Sometimes they gave me hard copy of private emails of their spouses/partners and other similar material, and photos and the like. They thought they could use them to win their cases or at a minimum, make the other side look bad in public. What do you think my reaction was?!
This evidence would not be admissible to prove the truth of the matter as they were obtained without permission of the other party. Further, this sort of evidence can easily be tampered and placed out of context. Even if there is a remote chance that this evidence is admissible in court to prove other than the truth of the matter, I would not have used them and so there was no need for me to view/listen/read them.
So why not? Isn't this is part of my job? Absolutely not! My eyes were not created to look at people's secrets or other people's private information without their consent. My ears were not created to eavesdrop. Ironically, it was a little easier to convey this message to my non-Muslim clients than to my Muslim clients.
When a man or woman decided to tape or hack into his/her spouse's email, they think they have the upper hand. But to me, it clearly shows that the marriage is a goner. When there is no trust or respect in a relationship or marriage to a point one have a need to tape or hack into the other spouse's email, there is only one solution--divorce. My job, as a legal representative, is one and only one--to make the exit as subtle and private as possible--the whole world, including me and their children don't need to see/hear the dirty laundry. He/she does not have to convince me that he/she is good and his/her spouse is bad. I am not the judge. The judging is best left in the hands of the Just Judge, al-Adl al-Hakam.
Unfortunately, technology has made it easier for people to pry into other people's lives--good or bad. While before people have to look through a peephole, hire agencies or private investigators to get people's information, now with a few keystrokes in the privacy of their own homes people can retrieve a lot of information about somebody. Even though nobody sees what you are doing, Allah is the all-Seer, He sees what you do. Even though you will not be prosecuted for the invasion of privacy, you have no right to the information, no matter how trivial, without explicit consent of the owner of the information, even if they are public records or on the web. Remember one day you are going to answer to Allah. Only Allah look at people's deeds and secrets--sins and otherwise. If you happen to see the secret of people, close your eyes. You don't want to spread what you know of others either and if you do, Allah will eventually seek your secret and expose them even the ones in your own house. Don't waste your time looking for or at people's secrets--spend that time in remembrance of Allah instead. Say SubhanAllah, Alhamdulillah, Allahu Akbar and many other dhikr instead.
May Allah grant us taqwa. Ameen. Please do not forget me in your night prayers. Jazakallahu khairan.
Wassalaam
