503. Two MAJOR Sins We Belittle

By Asma bint Shameem

Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta’aala gives us some very important instructions in Surah al-Hujuraat.

He says:

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اجْتَنِبُوا كَثِيرًا مِّنَ الظَّنِّ

إِنَّ بَعْضَ الظَّنِّ إِثْمٌ وَلَا تَجَسَّسُوا

“O you who believe! Stay away from much SUSPICIONS, indeed some suspicions are sins.

And SPY not..”

(Surah al-Hujraat: 12)

I’m sure all of us have read this Aayah many, many times in our lives.

Yet, how many of us have really ‘read’ it with the ‘eyes’ of the heart?

Have we really _understood_ the Order, the Command that the Lord of the Heavens and the Earth is giving us?

Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta’aala is addressing ME and YOU.

He’s saying “O you who believe”

So pay attention!

Next He says: “STAY AWAY from suspicions...!

And SPY NOT!”

Two major sins...

1.Suspicion

2.Spying

Our MASTER is ORDERING us not to be unnecessarily *suspicious* of each other nor *spy* on one another.

Yet, somehow we feel that this Aayah does not apply to us.

Sadly, we read the Aayah and pass it by as if nothing.

All we need to do is look at our lives and see how true this is!

We all “KNOW” it’s wrong.

Yet, how many wives are suspicious of their husbands for no reason and SPY on them...

And how many of us ‘conveniently’ eavesdrop on a conversation...

Or ‘casually’ look into other people’s phones, read their text messages, letters and emails...

We pry into private matters.

We keep an eye on the comings and goings of our neighbors, not out of love and care, but out of plain old nosiness.

We peep and grope after the secrets of the people...

We search for their defects and weaknesses...

ALL of this is WRONG.

It’s a MAJOR SIN and *forbidden* in our Deen.

Whether this is done on the basis of suspicion, or with an evil intention to harm someone, or for satisfying one's own curiosity, it is FORBIDDEN in EVERY CASE.

It does NOT BEFIT us, as BELIEVERS, that we should pry in the private affairs of other people, or try to peep at them from behind curtains to find out their defects and their weaknesses, EVEN IF it’s our own wife or husband or family.

Such behavior is grave immorality.

The Prophet sal Allaahu Alayhi wa sallam said: "O people, who have professed belief verbally, but faith has not yet entered your hearts: Do not pry into the affairs of the Muslims. For he, who will pry into the affairs of the Muslims, Allaah will pry into his affairs, and he whom AIlaah follows inquisitively, is DISGRACED by Him even in his own house. " (Abu Dawood-saheeh by al-Albaani)

And he said: “Beware of suspicion, for suspicion is the falsest of speech.

Do not eavesdrop; do not spy on one another; do not envy one another; do not forsake one another; do not hate one another.

Be, O slaves of Allaah, brothers.” (al-Bukhaari, Muslim).

How much clearer could the instructions be?!

Let us all try NOT to be suspicious of our Muslim brother or sister, our husbands and wives, our friends and families.

Let us not spy on one another or search for their faults or weaknesses.

Let’s clear our hearts and love each other for the sake of Allaah.

Let’s all truly be *“slaves of Allaah”*.