لَوْلَا إِذْ سَمِعْتُمُوهُ ظَنَّ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ وَالْمُؤْمِنَاتُ بِأَنْفُسِهِمْ خَيْرًا وَقَالُوا هَٰذَا إِفْكٌ مُبِينٌ
Lawlā idh samiʿtumūhu ẓanna l-muʾminūna wa-l-muʾminātu bi-anfusihim khayran wa-qālū hādhā ifkun mubīn.
When you heard the lie, why did believing men and women not think well of their own people and declare, ‘This is obviously a lie’?
The verse addresses a community in which an accusation had begun to circulate. People were speaking about someone else’s honor, passing on words whose truth they had not established. The Qurʾān (الْقُرْآنُ) asks them to examine their first response: why had they been so ready to receive the accusation, when they should have thought well of one another?
This is ḥusn al-ẓann (حُسْنُ الظَّنِّ), thinking well of others. It requires care with what we believe about people, especially when an incomplete account invites us to supply the rest. Ibn Kathīr explains the verse as a rebuke concerning the slander against ʿĀʾisha. The believers should have measured the accusation against what they knew of themselves and of her, rather than allowing rumor to become their judgment. [1]
Guarding another person’s honor
Among those asked about ʿĀʾisha was Zaynab bint Jaḥsh, another wife of the Prophet ﷺ. There was rivalry between them for his affection. When the Prophet asked what she knew or had seen, Zaynab answered idiomatically:
أَحْمِي سَمْعِي وَبَصَرِي، مَا عَلِمْتُ إِلَّا خَيْرًا.
Aḥmī samʿī wa-baṣarī; mā ʿalimtu illā khayran.
I safeguard my hearing and sight. I know nothing (about her) but good.
This means: I will not claim my ears heard or my eyes saw what they did not. She guarded her testimony. She would speak of what she knew, and what she knew was good. It is ʿĀʾisha herself who preserves this answer and acknowledges that Zaynab’s conscientious piety protected her during the ordeal. [2]
Rivalry can make a damaging story about another person easier to welcome. We may give it a hearing that we would refuse if it concerned someone dear to us. Zaynab’s answer asks something demanding of us: to remain fair when another person’s humiliation might seem to serve our own interests.
At Tabūk, Kaʿb ibn Mālik’s absence became the subject of a conversation. He had failed to accompany the Prophet and his companions. When the Prophet asked about him, a man explained his absence by referring to Kaʿb’s fine garments and self-admiration. Muʿādh ibn Jabal objected to the remark and said:
مَا عَلِمْنَا عَلَيْهِ إِلَّا خَيْرًا.
Mā ʿalimnā ʿalayhi illā khayran.
We know only good of him.
Kaʿb was not there to answer. Muʿādh refused to let an accusation about his character stand unchallenged. Yet Kaʿb’s own account later admits that he had no valid excuse: he had delayed preparing until the opportunity was gone. He spoke truthfully on his return and faced the consequences before his repentance was accepted. [3]
Muʿādh’s defense leaves that accountability intact. A failure does not give everyone else permission to invent its motive. We can acknowledge that something went wrong while remaining careful about what it tells us of the person who did it.
Receiving another person’s words
A different kind of misunderstanding appears in an account preserved by Ibn Abī Ḥātim about Imam al-Shāfiʿī and his student al-Rabīʿ. Visiting his teacher during an illness, al-Rabīʿ offered a prayer that literally meant:
قَوَّى اللَّهُ ضَعْفَكَ.
Qawwā llāhu ḍaʿfaka.
May God strengthen your weakness.
Al-Shāfiʿī pointed out that if his weakness were strengthened, it would kill him. Al-Rabīʿ explained that he had intended only good. His teacher reassured him:
أَعْلَمُ أَنَّكَ لَوْ شَتَمْتَنِي لَمْ تُرِدْ إِلَّا الْخَيْرَ.
Aʿlamu annaka law shatamtanī lam turid illā l-khayra.
I know that even if you insulted me, you would intend only good.
The student’s words had come out awkwardly. Al-Shāfiʿī understood the goodwill behind them and made that understanding clear.
This is a familiar test of any relationship. Someone’s words come out awkwardly while trying to express care, and we must decide how to receive them. If we know that person’s sincerity, that knowledge deserves a place in our judgment. One clumsy sentence need not outweigh a history of kindness.
Al-Shāfiʿī noticed the problem with the expression and addressed it. His reassurance allowed the student to be corrected without having his intention condemned. A teacher, parent, or colleague can do the same: explain what needs to change while recognizing the good someone was trying to do.
Thinking well of others calls for this care both in public and in private. In a conversation about an absent person, we can ask how much is actually known. When someone’s words trouble us, we can ask what they intended. Where a serious wrong has occurred, we can seek the facts and act justly without pretending to know everything in another person’s heart.
The Qurʾānic wording for “of one another” is literally “of themselves.” There is a tenderness in that expression. Another person’s honor belongs to a community whose honor we share. The generosity with which I ask to be understood places a responsibility on me to extend that generosity to someone else.
Most of us hope that people will remember our better intentions when our words fail us or our conduct needs correction. We can begin by offering that consideration ourselves, especially when the person whose reputation is in our hands is not present to speak.
Sources
Qurʾān 24:12 and Ibn Kathīr’s commentary on the verse. English verse translation: M. A. S. Abdel Haleem. Qurʾānic text; Abdel Haleem’s translation; Ibn Kathīr’s commentary.
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 4750, in ʿĀʾisha’s account of the slander. The report includes her acknowledgment of Zaynab’s rivalry and conscientious restraint. Read the report.
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 4418, Kaʿb ibn Mālik’s account of Tabūk, his failure to join the expedition, and his repentance. Read the report.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Ādāb al-Shāfiʿī wa-manāqibuhu (آدَابُ الشَّافِعِيِّ وَمَنَاقِبُهُ, The Conduct and Virtues of al-Shāfiʿī), p. 209. This is an early biographical report, not a Prophetic ḥadīth (حَدِيثٌ, report). The transmission runs from Ibn Abī Ḥātim through his father Abū Ḥātim to al-Rabīʿ. The dialogue is translated here from the Arabic. Read the Arabic text.
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