The ninth directive is that one should not get after things one has no knowledge of. The Quran has warned us that one must not take this directive lightly because the faculties of sight, hearing and intellect shall one day be held accountable before God. The implication of this directive is that it is not right for a Muslim to make bad estimations about other Muslims, or make allegations against others or take some action against others without proper knowledge of what the matter is or spread rumours merely on the basis of speculation or form a view about God’s being and attributes and His directives merely on the basis of conjecture and guesswork and unending analogies. In Surah Hujurat, some of these things have been mentioned with this clarity of prohibition:

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِن جَاءكُمْ فَاسِقٌ بِنَبَأٍ فَتَبَيَّنُوا أَن تُصِيبُوا قَوْمًا بِجَهَالَةٍ فَتُصْبِحُوا عَلَى مَا فَعَلْتُمْ نَادِمِينَ (6:49)

Believers! If an evil-doer brings you a piece of news, find out its true status, lest you inflict harm on others unwittingly and then regret your action. (49:6)

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اجْتَنِبُوا كَثِيرًا مِّنَ الظَّنِّ إِنَّ بَعْضَ الظَّنِّ إِثْمٌ وَلَا تَجَسَّسُوا (12:49)

Believers! Avoid being overly speculative, for some speculations are a blatant sin and do not spy on one another. (49:12)

(1) Taking Action without Finding out the Truth:

The first thing which is mentioned in these verses is that if an evil-doer informs us about something, we should not take action until we have thoroughly found out what the truth of the matter is, for we may take some action in frenzy and rage and later regret what we do.

It is evident from this directive that if the informant is an unknown person or someone about whom it is not known whether he is a good person or an evil one, the truth about him must be ascertained. On this very basis, the muhaddithun have researched into the life and times of people who narrate the words or deeds of the Prophet (sws) and if they were not able to access the details of a narrator, they rejected his narrative by regarding him to be an unknown person.

(2) Abstaining from Excessive Conjecture:

The second thing which is stated here is that one should not indulge in excessive conjecture because certain conjectures are blatant sins. Imam Amin Ahsan Islahi, while explaining this, writes:

… it is but natural for good or bad thoughts to arise in one’s heart about people whom a person encounters in life. It is these thoughts which establish or sever a person’s relationship with another. Viewed thus, it is these thoughts which make and break relationships in a society. On the basis of this importance which thoughts occupy, a person should not carelessly accept or reject them; on the contrary, he should be very sharp and alive to them. In this regard, the guidance provided by Islam to its followers is that a Muslim must always think well of others unless it is proven to him that some person is not worthy of this. Thinking well of a person is an obvious requirement of the brotherhood of faith on which Islam has founded its society and which has been explained earlier. On the other hand, if a person adopts the attitude of entertaining and harbouring all sorts of ill-founded thoughts that come to his mind, then the example of such a person is that of a hunter who becomes so blind in his obsession for catching fish that he also catches snakes. Obviously, there is a great possibility for a person who becomes blind in his obsession for catching fish to end up losing his own life one day as a result. The Qur’an has stopped Muslims from this very danger that one must not start conjecturing too much because certain conjectures are blatant sins which may doom a person. The guidance which emerges from this directive is that a person should not become so mentally sick as to think ill of others; on the contrary, he should always think well of others. If the deed or words of a person induce him to think ill of him, he should try as far as he can to make a good justification, if it can be made. He should only think contrarily when he is not able to make any sound justification. It is better to think positively of a person who deserves to be thought of negatively than to think negatively of a person who deserves to be thought of positively.[1]

(3) Refraining from Inquisitiveness:

The third thing which is mentioned is that one should not be nosy and inquisitive about others. Imam Amin Ahsan Islahi writes:

… here the prohibition actually relates to being inquisitive for an evil purpose. In other words, here the intention of a person is to try to find some fault or mistake in the private life of another person and have access to the secrets of his family and family life. Sometimes, the motive of this probing is jealousy for it soothes a person to find out such facts about someone he considers to be his rival. At other times, the motive is hatred and animosity: he wants to humiliate another person by informing others of his faults. This latter tendency has now become a profession to which newspaper journalism has given a great impetus. Some journalists are in perpetual search of scandals and the journalist who is considered to be the most successful is the one who is able to lay his hands on a scandal in the private life of a famous person which makes his newspaper or journal sell like hot cakes. Such spying and probing is counter to mutual sympathy and brotherhood which are the foundations of an Islamic society; for this reason Muslims have been stopped from indulging in them. On the other hand, probing which a Muslim does to find out the circumstances of another person so that he can help him in his difficulties and needs or the spying and probing which an Islamic state does to be fully informed about the circumstances of its citizens, is neither implied here nor is it prohibited. On the contrary, such spying is a very virtuous act on the part of a neighbour so that he is aware of the circumstances and problems which his neighbour is encountering and is able to help him out. Similarly, for a state, this attitude is not just an act of virtue, it is in fact its responsibility to arrange to be informed of the good or bad circumstances of its citizens so that it is able to properly discharge its duties.[2]

(Javed Ahmed Ghamidi)

(Translated by Dr. Shehzad Saleem)

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[1]. Amin Ahsan Islahi, Tadabbur-i Qur’an, vol. 7, 509.

[2]. Ibid., vol. 7, 510.