Al-Hujurat · Madani · ayah 12 of 18

Al-Hujurat 49:12

يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ ٱجْتَنِبُوا۟ كَثِيرًا مِّنَ ٱلظَّنِّ إِنَّ بَعْضَ ٱلظَّنِّ إِثْمٌ ۖ وَلَا تَجَسَّسُوا۟ وَلَا يَغْتَب بَّعْضُكُم بَعْضًا ۚ أَيُحِبُّ أَحَدُكُمْ أَن يَأْكُلَ لَحْمَ أَخِيهِ مَيْتًا فَكَرِهْتُمُوهُ ۚ وَٱتَّقُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ تَوَّابٌ رَّحِيمٌ

“O you who have believed, avoid much [negative] assumption. Indeed, some assumption is sin. And do not spy or backbite each other. Would one of you like to eat the flesh of his brother when dead? You would detest it. And fear Allāh; indeed, Allāh is Accepting of Repentance and Merciful.”

Saheeh International

Essence

A guess becomes a search, the search becomes a story, and the story is your brother's flesh: the ayah breaks every link.

A reflection

But it is true

In an office kitchen a man stirs his coffee and says it plainly. I am not being unkind. It is just a fact. He is hopeless with deadlines. Everyone nods, because it is.

That sentence carries the most common assumption about this ayah. Backbiting, people think, means saying something false behind someone's back. As long as it is accurate, it is reporting, not backbiting.

The Prophet ﷺ was asked exactly this. Sahih Muslim records it. What is backbiting? Mentioning your brother with something he would dislike. A man asked: and if what I say is true of him? If it is true, the Prophet ﷺ said, you have backbitten him. If it is not, you have slandered him.

So the defence is the definition. Truth does not take a remark out of backbiting; it is what makes it backbiting rather than lies. An early scholar divided the harm into three. Saying what is true of him is backbiting. Passing on what merely reached you about him is a rumour spread. Saying what is not in him is slander.

The Prophet's ﷺ wife ʿĀʾishah once remarked that another of his wives was short. Al-Tirmidhi records his reply and graded it ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ. You have said a word that, mixed into the sea, would change its taste. It was true, small, and physical. It still counted.

The test the ayah sets is not accuracy. It is absence and dislike. Is he out of the room? Would he hate to hear it? If both answers are yes, the coffee-stirring man has already eaten, whatever the facts.

The full entry has 7 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.