THE WORD OF GOD

to eat his dead brother’s flesh? No, you would hate it. Fear God, God is ever forgiving and most merciful. 49: 12 If a man harbours suspicion against another, everything about the latter appears wrong to him, for his mind starts drifting in negative and wrong directions. He starts searching for his shortcomings rather than his good points. It becomes his favourite ploy to describe his weaknesses and then to denigrate him. The root of many social evils is unfounded suspicion. It is therefore necessary for man to be alert to this. He should not allow such suspicion to enter his mind. If you are suspicious of someone, you can always meet him and talk frankly to him. But, it would be highly unethical to speak ill of a person, if he was not there to defend himself. An individual may occasionally make such mistakes. But, if he is God-fearing, he will not persist in doing so. His fear of God will warn him about his mistake and consequently he will give up his wrong approach and seek God’s pardon. Mankind! We have created you from a male and female, and made you into peoples and tribes, so that you might come to know each other. The noblest of you in God’s sight is the one who fears God most. God is all knowing and all-aware. 49: 13 Human beings differ from each other in many ways, notably in terms of race and place of origin—some are black, some are white, some are from the rain forests, some are from the tundra. But all these differences are for the purpose of identification—not for the making of distinctions. Indeed, many evils have stemmed from these differences being used to discriminate between one person and another, between one community and another, between one nation and another. Humanity has been eternally torn asunder by such prejudice. Human beings, in view of their origin, are all one. Among them, if at all there is any basis for distinction, it is as to who is fearful of God and who is not. Even this is known only to God and not to any human being. The Arabs of the desert say, ‘We have believed.’ Say to them, ‘You have not believed yet; say rather, “We have submitted,” for faith has not yet entered into your hearts. But if you will obey God and His