Al-Hujurat · Madani · ayah 6 of 18

Al-Hujurat 49:6

يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓا۟ إِن جَآءَكُمْ فَاسِقٌۢ بِنَبَإٍ فَتَبَيَّنُوٓا۟ أَن تُصِيبُوا۟ قَوْمًۢا بِجَهَـٰلَةٍ فَتُصْبِحُوا۟ عَلَىٰ مَا فَعَلْتُمْ نَـٰدِمِينَ

“O you who have believed, if there comes to you a disobedient one with information, investigate, lest you harm a people out of ignorance and become, over what you have done, regretful.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Weighty news from an unreliable source is not a fact until you have checked it, because the people it names cannot be un-harmed.

A reflection

Forwarded before it was checked

At four in the afternoon, a screenshot appears in a primary school parents' group. It looks like a council letter: the school will close for a week from tomorrow, because of a safety problem. Within an hour it has been shared to three other groups. By evening, a hundred families have rearranged work and childcare. The council never sent it. Nobody knows who made it.

The ayah was revealed for a world without screens, but it describes this one exactly. If a fāsiq, someone unreliable, comes to you with nabaʾ, weighty news, fa-tabayyanū: make it clear.

The Quran has two readings of that verb, and both are well known. Most read fa-tabayyanū: seek clarity, find out. Others read fa-tathabbatū: hold firm, steady yourselves, do not move until the matter is settled. One early commentator explains that the meanings are close. Wait, he says, until you know it is sound. Do not rush to accept it.

The Prophet ﷺ spelled out the cost of skipping this step. Sunan Abi Dawud records him saying that it is enough of a sin for a person to pass on everything he hears. The narration is graded ṣaḥīḥ. In the same collection he calls one phrase a bad mount to ride: they say. It too is graded ṣaḥīḥ. They say is the vehicle on which rumours travel, and the rider never has to account for where it came from.

Notice what this does to the forwarder. He did not invent the claim. He only passed it on. The hadith says that is already enough. Sharing is an act, and the person who shares becomes part of the chain.

So the ayah gives two habits for every message that matters. Find out where it came from and whether it is true. And until you know, hold still. The forward button can wait. The families it might harm cannot be un-harmed.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.