The Quran

Preface

إِنَّ الَّذينَ جاءوا بِالإِفكِ عُصبَةٌ مِنكُم ۚ لا تَحسَبوهُ شَرًّا لَكُم ۖ بَل هُوَ خَيرٌ لَكُم ۚ لِكُلِّ امرِئٍ مِنهُم مَا اكتَسَبَ مِنَ الإِثمِ ۚ وَالَّذي تَوَلّىٰ كِبرَهُ مِنهُم لَهُ عَذابٌ عَظيمٌ

Yusuf Ali

Those who brought forward¹ the lie are a body among yourselves: think it not to be an evil to you; On the contrary it is good² for you: to every man among them (will come the punishment) of the sin that he earned, and to him³ who took on himself the lead among them, will be a penalty grievous.

The particular incident here referred to occurred on the return from the expedition to Banū al Mustaliq, A.H. 5-6. When the march was ordered, ʿĀisha was not in her tent, having gone to search for a valuable necklace she had dropped. As her litter was veiled, it was not noticed that she was not in it, until the army reached the next halt. Meanwhile, finding the camp had gone, she sat down to rest, hoping that some one would come back to fetch her when her absence was noticed. It was night, and she fell asleep. Next morning she was found by Safwan, a Muhājir, who had been left behind in the camp expressly to pick up anything inadvertently left behind. He put her on his camel and brought her, leading the camel on foot. This gave occasion to enemies to raise a malicious scandal. The ringleader among them was the chief of the Medīna Hypocrites, 'Abdullah ibn Ubayy, who is referred to in the last clause of this verse. He had other sins and enormities to his debit, and he was left to the spiritual punishment of an unrepentant sinner, for he died in that state. The minor tools were given the legal punishment of the law, and after penitence mended their lives. They made good.
It is the worse for a scandal to be whispered about with bated breath, than that it should be brought into the light of day and disproved.
The ringleader: see n. 2962 above.