(11–26) “Indeed, those who brought forth the slander are a group among you. Do not think it evil for you; rather, it is good for you”—through to the end of the verses, concluding with His words: “For them is forgiveness and a generous provision.”
The preceding passage emphasized the gravity of accusing people of fornication in general, and this served as a prelude to the incident involving the noblest of women, the Mother of the Believers (may Allah be pleased with her). These verses were revealed concerning the well-known Incident of the Slander, which is reliably established in the authentic hadith collections, the Sunan works, and the Musnads.
In summary, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was on one of his campaigns, accompanied by his wife Aisha the Truthful, daughter of the Truthful. Her necklace broke, so she remained behind to search for it. They placed her howdah upon her camel without noticing her absence, and then the army set out. When she returned to their former campsite, she realized that they would come back for her once they noticed she was missing, but they continued on their journey. Safwān ibn al-Muattal al-Sulamī, one of the most virtuous Companions (may Allah be pleased with him), had halted to rest at the rear of the company and fallen asleep. He saw Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) and recognized her. He made his mount kneel, and she mounted it without either of them speaking to the other. He then led the mount carrying her until they reached the army after it had halted at midday.
When some of the hypocrites accompanying the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) on that journey saw Safwān arriving with her under those circumstances, they spread what they spread and embellished the tale. Tongues eagerly seized upon it, until even some believers were deceived by it and began repeating it among themselves. Revelation was withheld from the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) for a considerable time. After some time, the news reached Aisha, and she was overcome with intense grief. Allah Most High then revealed her innocence in these verses. Allah admonished the believers, declared the matter to be exceedingly grave, and instructed them with beneficial counsel.
Thus, His words, “Indeed, those who brought forth the slander,” mean the heinous lie: the accusation made against the Mother of the Believers. “Are a group among you” means a company regarded as belonging to you, O believers. Among them was the believer who was sincere [in his faith, but was deceived by the hypocrites’ promotion of it] (1), and among them was the hypocrite.
“Do not think it evil for you; rather, it is good for you,” because it resulted in the vindication and declaration of innocence of the Mother of the Believers, the exaltation of her renown, and praise so general that it extended to all the wives of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). It also clarified verses and rulings that Allah’s servants urgently require and that will continue to be applied until the Day of Resurrection. All of this is an immense good that would not have come about but for the words of the slanderers. Whenever Allah wills a matter, He appoints a cause for it.
The address was therefore directed generally to all believers, and Allah informed them that one believer’s aspersion upon another is like an aspersion upon themselves. This teaches that believers, in their mutual affection, mercy, compassion, and unity in pursuing their common welfare, are like a single body. One believer is to another like a building, each part strengthening the other. Just as a person hates to have his own honor impugned, he should hate anyone to impugn the honor of his believing brother, who is like his own self. Until a servant attains this state, his faith remains deficient and his sincere concern for others incomplete.
“Each person among them shall bear what he earned of sin.” This is a warning to those who brought forth the slander: they will be punished for what they said. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) administered the prescribed punishment to several of them. “And the one who took upon himself the greater share of it”—that is, the principal burden of the slander—was the vile hypocrite Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salūl, may Allah curse him. “For him is a tremendous punishment,” namely, abiding forever in the lowest depth of the Fire.
Allah then instructed His servants how to respond upon hearing such talk, saying: “Why, when you heard it, did the believing men and believing women not think well of themselves?” That is, the believers should have thought well of one another and presumed them innocent of what they had been accused of. Their known faith should have repelled the false slander spoken about them. “And said,” because of that good opinion, “Glory be to You!”—declaring You free of every imperfection and far above allowing Your chosen servants to be stained by heinous deeds. “This is an obvious lie”—a lie and calumny of the gravest and clearest kind. This is the good opinion that becomes obligatory when a believer hears such talk concerning a fellow believer: he must verbally declare him innocent and denounce the speaker as a liar.
“Why did they not produce four witnesses to it?” That is, why did the accusers not bring four upright and acceptable witnesses to substantiate their accusation? “Since they did not produce the witnesses, it is they who are liars before Allah.” Even if they were inwardly certain that it had occurred, they are liars under Allah’s ruling, because Allah prohibited them from speaking about it without four witnesses. Hence He said, “It is they who are liars before Allah,” rather than merely, “It is they who are liars.” All of this demonstrates the inviolability of a Muslim’s honor: no one may venture to accuse a Muslim without the required number of witnesses establishing the truth of the allegation.
“Had it not been for Allah’s grace upon you and His mercy in this world and the Hereafter,” by which His beneficence encompasses your religious and worldly affairs in both realms, “a tremendous punishment would have touched you for what you plunged into” concerning the slander, because you deserved it for what you said. Yet, out of His grace and mercy toward you, ⦗564⦘ He prescribed repentance for you and made the prescribed punishment a purification from sins.
“When you passed it from tongue to tongue”—that is, you eagerly seized upon it, passed it from one to another, and probed into its details, though it was a false statement. “And said with your mouths that of which you had no knowledge.” Both matters are prohibited: speaking falsehood and speaking without knowledge. “You thought it insignificant,” and that is why those believers who engaged in it dared to do so, though they subsequently repented and were purified of it. “While with Allah it was tremendous.” This contains a stern warning against committing certain sins while treating them lightly. A servant’s regarding a sin as insignificant does not benefit him at all or lessen its punishment. Rather, it compounds the sin and makes it easier for him to commit it again.
“And why, when you heard it”—O believers, when you heard the words of the slanderers—“did you not say,” denouncing it and recognizing its gravity, “It is not for us to speak of this”? That is, it is neither proper nor fitting for us to speak of this manifest lie, for a believer’s faith restrains him from committing vile deeds. “This is a monstrous calumny”—an immense lie.
“Allah admonishes you never to return to anything like it,” meaning any similar accusation of believers with immorality. Allah admonishes you and counsels you against it. How excellent are the admonitions and counsels of our Lord! We must therefore receive them with acceptance, compliance, submission, and gratitude to Him for what He has explained to us. “How excellent is that with which Allah admonishes you.” “If you are believers.” This indicates that sincere faith restrains its possessor from venturing into prohibited acts.
“And Allah makes clear to you the signs,” which clarify rulings and contain admonition, deterrence, encouragement, and warning. He makes them perfectly clear to you. “And Allah is All-Knowing”—perfect in knowledge and all-encompassing in wisdom. Among His knowledge and wisdom is that He has taught you out of His knowledge, even though the benefit of this returns to your welfare at all times.
“Indeed, those who love that indecency should spread”—that is, heinous, repugnant, and monstrous things, and who love such indecency to become widely known—“among the believers will have a painful punishment,” one that causes pain to both heart and body. This is because such a person betrays his Muslim brothers, loves evil for them, and dares to violate their honor. If this warning applies merely to loving that indecency should spread and taking inward delight in it, what then of the still graver act of publicizing and transmitting it? This applies whether the indecency actually occurred or not.
All of this proceeds from Allah’s mercy toward His believing servants and His protection of their honor, just as He has protected their blood and property. He commanded them to maintain sincere and harmonious relations, and for each of them to love for his brother what he loves for himself and dislike for him what he dislikes for himself. “Allah knows, while you do not know.” He has therefore taught you and made clear to you what you did not know.
“Had it not been for Allah’s grace upon you,” which encompasses you from every side, “and His mercy” toward you, “and that Allah is Most Compassionate, Most Merciful,” He would not have explained these rulings, admonitions, and sublime wisdom to you, nor would He have granted respite to those who disobeyed His command. But His grace and mercy, and the fact that these are His abiding attributes, have granted you worldly and otherworldly good beyond your ability to count or enumerate.
Having prohibited this particular sin, He then prohibited sins in general, saying: “O you who believe, do not follow the footsteps of Satan”—that is, his ways and whisperings.
The footsteps of Satan include every act of disobedience involving the heart, tongue, or body. Part of Allah Most High’s wisdom is that He explained both the ruling—the prohibition against following Satan’s footsteps—and its wisdom, by clarifying the evil inherent in what was prohibited, which necessitates and calls for abandoning it. He therefore said: “Whoever follows the footsteps of Satan, then indeed he”—that is, Satan—“commands indecency,” meaning grave sins that sound minds and revealed laws deem abhorrent, even though some souls incline toward them, “and wrongdoing,” meaning what sound minds reject and do not acknowledge as good. The sins that constitute Satan’s footsteps fall within these two categories.
Allah’s prohibition of these things is a blessing upon His servants for which they should thank and remember Him, because it protects them from being stained by vices and repugnant deeds. It is part of His beneficence toward them that He forbade them these things, just as He forbade them to consume deadly poisons and the like. “Had it not been for Allah’s grace upon you and His mercy, not one of you would ever have been purified.” That is, no one would have been purified of following Satan’s footsteps, for Satan and his hosts strive to call people toward them and make them seem attractive. The soul inclines toward evil and repeatedly commands it; deficiency besets the servant from every direction; and faith is not strong. If a person were left alone with all these motives, no one would attain purity by cleansing himself of sins and evil deeds and growing through the performance of good deeds. Purification comprises both cleansing and growth. Yet Allah’s grace and mercy have caused those among you who attain purification to do so.
Among the supplications of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was: “O Allah, grant my soul its piety and purify it; You are the best to purify it. You are its Guardian and Master.” Hence He said: “But Allah purifies whomever He wills”—those whom He knows will become purified through His purification. Hence He said: “And Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing.”
“Let not those among you who possess virtue and means swear that they will not give to relatives, the poor, and those who emigrated in Allah’s cause. Let them pardon and overlook.” Among those who had become involved in the slander was Mistah ibn Uthātha, a relative of Abu Bakr the Truthful (may Allah be pleased with him). Mistah was a poor man and one of those who had emigrated in Allah’s cause. Because of what he had said, Abu Bakr swore that he would no longer provide for him.
This verse was therefore revealed, forbidding them (2) from making such an oath, which entailed cutting off his support. It urged Abu Bakr to pardon and overlook, and promised him Allah’s forgiveness if he forgave Mistah. He said: ⦗565⦘ “Do you not love that Allah should forgive you? Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” When you treat His servants with pardon and forbearance, He treats you in the same way. Upon hearing this verse, Abu Bakr said, “Indeed, by Allah, I certainly love that Allah should forgive me,” and he resumed providing for Mistah.
This verse proves the obligation of supporting relatives, and that support and kindness are not to be withheld because of a person’s sin. It also encourages pardon and forbearance, even when one has suffered at the hands of wrongdoers as he did.
He then mentioned the severe warning against accusing chaste women, saying: “Indeed, those who accuse chaste women”—women innocent of immorality—“who are unsuspecting,” for such a thought never even entered their hearts, “and believing, are cursed in this world and the Hereafter.” Such a curse is incurred only because of a major sin.
He emphasized the curse by stating that it continues upon them in both realms: “And for them is a tremendous punishment.” This is in addition to the curse: He has driven them far from His mercy and subjected them to the severity of His vengeance.
That punishment will come on the Day of Resurrection: “On the Day when their tongues, hands, and feet will testify against them concerning what they used to do.” Every limb will testify against them regarding what it did, for the One who gives speech to all things will make it speak, and the person will be unable to deny anything. The One who makes their witnesses come from their own bodies has indeed dealt with His servants in perfect justice.
“On that Day Allah will pay them their true recompense in full”—the true recompense for their deeds, established with justice and equity. They will find their recompense paid in full, with nothing omitted: “They will say, ‘Woe to us! What is with this record that it leaves neither small nor great without enumerating it?’ They will find whatever they did present, and your Lord wrongs no one.” At that tremendous standing, they will know that Allah is the Manifest Truth, and they will know that manifest truth belongs exclusively to Allah Most High.
His sublime attributes are true, His actions are true, worship of Him is true, meeting Him is true, His promise and threat are true, His religious and requital rulings are true, and His messengers are true. There is therefore no truth save what pertains to Allah and comes from Allah.
“Vile women are for vile men, and vile men are for vile women.” That is, every vile man, woman, word, or deed is suited to what is vile, accords with it, is joined to it, and resembles it. Likewise, every good man, woman, word, or deed is suited to what is good, accords with it, is joined to it, and resembles it. This is a comprehensive statement of exclusivity from which nothing is excluded.
Among its foremost applications is that the prophets—especially the Messengers of Firm Resolve, and above all their master Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), who is absolutely the finest of all good creation—are suited only to women who are good. Thus, accusing Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) of this matter is an aspersion upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and that was precisely what the hypocrites intended through this slander. The mere fact that she was the wife of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) makes it known that she could only have been good and utterly innocent of this vile deed.
How much more so, given who she was: the foremost woman of truthfulness, the finest, most learned, and best of women; the beloved of the Messenger of the Lord of all worlds; the one wife in whose bedclothes he received revelation, to the exclusion of all his other wives! Allah then declared this explicitly, leaving no argument for any advocate of falsehood and no room for doubt or suspicion. He said: “Those are absolved of what they say.” This refers primarily to Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her), and secondarily to all chaste, unsuspecting believing women. “For them is forgiveness” encompassing all sins, “and a generous provision” in Paradise, bestowed by the Generous Lord.