And His words:

“When you passed it from tongue to tongue and said with your mouths what you had no knowledge of”

explain the reason for the punishment: passing falsehood from tongue to tongue and voicing it. These are two prohibited kinds of speech: speaking falsehood and speaking without knowledge.

Then He, Glorified is He, said:

“Why, when you heard it, did you not say, ‘It is not for us to speak of this. Glory be to You! This is a tremendous slander’?”

The earlier passage urges them to think well of others, while this one forbids them to voice slanderous accusations of illicit intercourse. Relevant to the former are His words:

“Avoid much suspicion; indeed, some suspicion is sinful.”

The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, also said:

“Beware of suspicion, for suspicion is the falsest of speech.”

Likewise, His words, Exalted is He,

“The believing men and women thought well of one another,”

show the goodness of this kind of thinking, which Allah has commanded. It is established in al-Sahīh that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said to ‘Ā’ishah:

“I do not think that so-and-so and so-and-so know anything of this matter of ours.”

This indicates that some suspicion is permissible, as al-Bukhārī argued on the basis of this report. However, when one knows that a Muslim possesses faith that restrains him from committing sexual immorality, one must think well of him, not ill.

The verse forbids passing such things from tongue to tongue and forbids a person to say what he has no knowledge of, in keeping with His words, Exalted is He:

“Do not pursue that of which you have no knowledge.”

Allah, Exalted is He, has prescribed punishments for committing sexual immorality and falsely accusing others of it unlike those He has prescribed for any other sins. For He prescribed stoning for it, and He Himself—Exalted is He—stoned the people of