Spirit of Islam, September 2018

SUSPICION means believing something to be bad without there being any substantial evidence. In the social sense allowing suspicion to become a habit can have a disastrous effect on any society and in moral terms, suspicion is a sin. In both cases it is to be completely avoided. One of the divine commandments given in the Quran is that of avoiding suspicion. In the chapter Al-Hujurat (The Apartments), the Quran gives important guidance: Believers, avoid much suspicion. Indeed, some suspicion is a sin. (49: 12) The Prophet said: “Do not be suspicious of your fellow men.” Suspicion is tantamount to a lie. When you suspect another person of some wrongdoing and you have no irrefutable evidence in support of your suspicion, you are committing falsehood. In other words, you are telling a lie. Man being a social being, collective living is must for humankind in this world. Collective living is always based on mutual trust. Without mutual trust, no healthy society can be established. In a society where people are subject to misgivings and everyone becomes suspicious of everyone else, there can be no mutual trust. The habit of suspicion is like smoking. It not only ruins the health of the individual who has this bad habit, but it also pollutes the whole of the social atmosphere. Suspicion is just like moral pollution. Just as air pollution is harmful for everyone so also is this kind of moral pollution. It is, in fact, like spiritual pollution. All those living in society where the majority of its members are of a suspicious cast of mind, are bound to inhale its morally polluted air. Everyone is bound to suffer from bad health in terms of morality. So suspicion is not an individual, but rather a social evil. In such a society, everyone becomes unpredictable, causing mutual trust to disappear. And an absence of mutual trust leads to many other problems. For example, in such a society, no one will dare to support any other person and then there can be no development of the culture of friendship. DON’T LIVE IN SUSPICION The Good Life