and be servants of Allah, brothers. In yet another narration: “Do not shun one another, and let none of you enter into a sale that his brother has already concluded.” Muslim relates the hadith with all of these variants, while al-Bukhari transmits most of them.

Explanation
The author—may Allah have mercy on him—in his book Riyad al-Salihin entitles this section: “Chapter on the Prohibition of Spying.”

Spying is for a person to pursue his brother so as to uncover his private matters, whether by direct means—going himself to look in the hope of finding some hardship or shortcoming—or by using devices that record sound, or by way of the telephone. Every method that enables a person to get at his brother’s private affairs and faults is spying, and it is forbidden, for Allah the Exalted says: “O you who believe, avoid much suspicion, for some suspicion is sin, and do not spy” (Q 49:12). Thus Allah has prohibited spying.

Because spying harms one’s Muslim brother, the author—may Allah have mercy on him—linked the proof from this verse to another verse in which Allah the Most High says: “Those who harm believing men and believing women for something they have not earned bear the burden of slander and manifest sin” (Q 33:58). Spying is indeed a harm: the one who is spied upon is hurt by it, and it leads