There is a common e-da'wa going on in most social network from WhatsApp to viber to instagram and all others. it involves innocent looking messages urging Muslims to forward to others.
The contents of these messages might be true or false or a mixture of both. I will explain how to identify them later inshaAllah. There are several mode of appearance of these type of messages:

1. The Threatening message.


In this type, you are urged to forward and refusal to do so earns you a title of enemy of Allah or friend of shaytan or stuff like that.

This is totally false as a Muslim can chose how and when he wishes to do da'awa, not ready to do at a particular time doesn't automatically earn one such condemnation.

2.The promise of a reward or good news in few hours.

it is important for every Muslim to know that when we ask Allah for anything, we do not give time we want our dua to be accepted. In fact as a believer you just pray and hope. it's okay to ask someone to do a particular ibada and hope hope for Allah's reply but stipulating a time to it is totally out of line

3.The forward to a certain number of people type of measage.


There is no proof from either the Quran or the hadith where one is limited to pass a good message about Islam to either 10 or 20 or any specific number of people. so messages of this format mostly are false.

Ways of identifying the wrong messages.


it's very important to know if these messages are true cos spreading a false message about Islam is harm as stated in the hadith below
Bukhari, Volume 8, Book 73, Number 7 : Narrated by Abu Bakra Allah's Apostle said thrice, "Shall I not inform you of the biggest of the great sins?" We said, "Yes, O Allah's Apostle" He said, "To join partners in worship with Allah: to be undutiful to one's parents." The Prophet sat up after he had been reclining and added, "And I warn you against giving forged statement and a false witness; I warn you against giving a forged statement and a false witness." The Prophet kept on saying that warning till we thought he would not stop "


Allah also said in the Quran in suratul hujurat ayah 6
" O you who have believed, if there comes to you a disobedient one with information, investigate, lest you harm a people out of ignorance and become, over what you have done, regretful"
49:7.


so based on these evidences it's better to be able to identify false messages. Based on my observation, below is a description of how they look like. ..
1. Allah says



some of these messages just have a statement of this nature where it is written that Allah said but the reference in the Quran is not included. any message of this nature where the surah/chapter and ayat/verse is not stated should be avoided to be on a safer side.

2. The prophet (saw) said.


this is similar to the previous one.
in this one, the message just tells you prophet said, it doesn't tell you which companion reported the saying or the narrator nor does it tell you the hadith book if it's from sahih bukhari or Muslim and so on. ... Lets avoid these messages.

what to do when you get these type of messages



many Muslims might ignorantly forward this type of messages just as I once did without verifying bit it's wrong to do so. what if we ended up helping the promotion of false hood. ? so if you have the means to verify Pls do and if you find it to be false immediately preach to that Muslim brother or sister that Sent it and also urge him/her to preach to the person who sent it to him/her.


don't just ignore the message without correcting it. cos rasulullah (saw) said as reported in this hadith
Hadith 34:
On the authority of Abu Saeed al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him) who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah say, “Whoever of you sees an evil must then change it with his hand. If he is not able to do so, then [he must change it ] with his tongue. And if he is not able to do so, then [he must change it] with his heart. And that is the slightest [effect of] faith.” (Recorded in Muslim)..... so let's try to correct our brothers and sisters.



if you do not have the means of verifying it, then don't forward it.


Allah knows best. May He forgive us our sins both the consciously and unconsciously committed as we strive to be better Muslims. Ameen

Thanks brother Udatso for message,those messages are annoying.Even on facebook,you will see updates like 'Type amin,if you don't type amin it means you are heartless'.Huh? Like Seriously? Na you get heart gauge?
The threatening messages are the worst,I received a whatsapp message and it says 'Send this du'a to 10 people,someone that send it received a promotion in his job few days later,the other person that didn't send the message suffered some certain loss'.Argumentum Ad Baculum
Why threatening me to send message? Na by force?

lanrexlan:
Thanks brother Udatso for message,those messages are annoying.Even on facebook,you will see updates like 'Type amin,if you don't type amin it means you are heartless'.Huh? Like Seriously? Na you get heart gauge?
The threatening messages are the worst,I received a whatsapp message and it says 'Send this du'a to 10 people,someone that send it received a promotion in his job few days later,the other person that didn't send the message suffered some certain loss'.Argumentum Ad Baculum
Why threatening me to send message? Na by force?

Hahaha. I even forgot that type "ameen" type of measage. Thanks for sharing brother

I do not forward such. It is a copied practice and Muslims have been warned to not copy other religions and cultures.

ayinba1:
I do not forward such. It is a copied practice and Muslims have been warned to not copy other religions and cultures.

unfortunately many Muslims do not know this. we need to be correcting any Muslim who is guilty of this.

This thread is long overdue, like ayinba said it is a copied practice, I don't see why a threat must follow a message that should be ordinarily beneficial to everyone!

I am usually careful with such messages, mostly i edit a beneficial message, by removing all the threats and false information i know, sometimes, i try to find out about the source and then forward if true. Muslims should be careful about the messages they forward.

There is this one that was usually spread by hardcopy and distributed at the Masjid but now spread by softcopy lol, the one about a sleeping Imam in meccah and dreaming of seeing the prophet, this one usually carries the threat signature always...

May Allah guide us all ameen