‫بسم ﷲ الرحمن الرحيم‬

‫ أما بعـد‬،‫ والصالة والسالم على رسول ﷲ وعلى آله وصحبه‬% ‫الحمد‬

Beware of Conjecture
Taken from: http://ilmpoint.wordpress.com

Allaah ‫ سبحانه و تعالى‬Says:

‫الظنِّ إِ ْث ٌم‬
َّ ‫ض‬ َ ‫َيا أَ ُّي َھا الَّذ‬
َّ ‫ِين آ َم ُنوا اجْ َت ِنبُوا َك ِثيرً ا م َِّن‬
َ ْ‫الظنِّ إِنَّ َبع‬
"O you who believe! Avoid suspicion as much (as possible), for suspicion in some cases is a sin..."
[Al-Hujuraat: 12]

Abu Hurayrah ‫ رضي ' عنه‬narrated that the Messenger of Allaah ‫ صلى ' عليه وسلم‬said:

‫ث‬ َ ُ‫فإن الظﱠ ﱠن أ ْك َذب‬

ِ ‫الح ِدي‬ ‫ ﱠ‬، ‫إيﱠا ُك ْم والظﱠنﱢ‬
"Beware of conjecture, for conjecture is the most lying of speech..." [Agreed upon]

1. How much of problems and mistrust take place between the hearts of Muslims due to errors and
(mis)information that comes through conjecture or suspicion? The attribute of the believer is that
they verify suspect information that comes to them, while maintaining Husn ad-Dhan. Therefore, the
believer does not accept anything without checking and does not take a position or build an opinion
on fluid news.

2, And from this is the Muslim leaving that which does not concern him; and thus not insisting upon
asking questions out of curiosity or for reasons of entertainment to fill a void, as Allaah Says when
speaking about the believers:

‫ُون‬ ِ ‫ين ھُ ْم َع ِن اللﱠ ْغ ِو ُمع‬

َ ‫ْرض‬ َ ‫َوالﱠ ِذ‬
"And those who turn away from Al-Laghw (vain, dirty, false, evil talk etc.)" [Al-Mu'minoon: 3]

3. The Messenger of Allaah ‫ صلى ' عليه وسلم‬said: "It is enough lying for a man to speak of everything
that he hears." [Imam Muslim in his 'Muqaddimah', 6; 'Saheeh al-Jaami', 4482 (see also 'Silsilah al-Saheehah', 2025)]

4. Imam an-Nawawi ‫ رحمه ' تعالى‬commented in his sharh of Saheeh Muslim: "Usually a person hears
truth and lies, so if he speaks of everything that he hears, he is lying by telling of things that did not
happen, and lying by speaking of something other than the way it happened; and he does not have to
do that deliberately (in order to be regarded as telling lies)."
5. The Prophet ‫ صلى ' عليه وسلم‬said as part of a beautiful hadeeth: "...And He dislikes gossip for
you..." [Saheeh al-Bukhari, 2231]

Al-Hafidh ibn Hajar ‫ رحمه ' تعالى‬said: "With regard to the words ‘and He dislikes gossip [qeela wa
qaala – lit. "it was said and he said"] for you’, al-Muhibb al-Tabari said, there are three points of view
as to the meaning of this hadeeth:

i - That it indicates that it is makrooh (disliked/despised) to speak too much, because it leads to
mistakes.

ii - That it refers to wanting to pass on what people say and looking for that in order to tell others of
it, so that one can say, “So and so said such and such, and Such and such was said…” The prohibition
on this is either a rebuke for doing too much of it or it refers to a particular type of talk, which the
person spoken of dislikes to have mentioned.

iii - That it refers to narrating differences of opinion concerning religious matters, such as saying,
“This one said such and such and that one said such and such.” - The reason why this is disliked is
that speaking of such matters may lead to mistakes. This applies especially to those who transmit
such views without verifying them, merely imitating those whom they hear from without exercising
any caution. I say: this is supported by the saheeh hadeeth, "It is enough sin for a man to speak of
everything that he hears."

6. It was narrated that Abu Qalaabah said: Abu Mas’ood said to Abu ‘Abd-Allah, or Abu ‘Abd-Allah
said to Abu Mas’ood: What did you hear the Messenger of Allaah ‫ صلى ' عليه وسلم‬say about saying
"they say…?" He said: "I heard the Messenger of Allaah ‫ صلى ' عليه وسلم‬say: 'How bad it is for a man
to keep saying, 'They say…'" [Silsilah as-Saheehah, 866]

7. Al-‘Azeemabadi ‫ رحمه ' تعالى‬said: "This means, it is a bad way to reach one’s objective, by saying,
‘they say…’. Saying ‘they say…’ is akin to conjecture, i.e. the worst habit of a man is to use the phrase
‘they say’ to serve his purposes' therefore he tells of something, merely repeating what others have
said without verifying it, and thus he transmits lies … this was the view of al-Manaawi...

Al-Khatabi said: ‫ كمن اتھم بالفاحشة ولم يظھر‬،‫ والنھي إنما ھو عن التھمة التي ال سبب لھا يوجبھا‬،‫المراد التھمة ومحل التحذير‬
‫عليه ما يقتضي ذلك‬

8. Being ever-mindful of time, we should therefore be competing with each other towards virtue and
goodness as Allaah has Commanded of us; and helping each other in birr and taqwah and not in sin
and transgression. Unnecessarily inflicting trials and penalties of conjecture will continually weaken
faith, increase attachment to this world and make one negligent of the Hereafter.

And from the rest of the original hadeeth (above), the Messenger ‫ صلى ' عليه وسلم‬continued: "...Do
not spy or pry. Do not be rivals nor envy one another. Do not cut one another off nor show enmity
to one another. Do not hate one another nor envy one another. Be slaves of Allah, brothers. Be
slaves of Allah, brothers, as you have been commanded to be. The Muslim is the brother of the
Muslim. He does not wrong him nor disappoints him nor despises him. Taqwah is here," and he
pointed to his chest. "It is enough evil for a man that he should despise his Muslim brother. The
blood, honour and property of every Muslim is sacred to another Muslim. Allah does not look at
your bodies nor your forms, but He looks at your hearts and your actions."