The Quran

Preface

يا أَيُّهَا الَّذينَ آمَنُوا اجتَنِبوا كَثيرًا مِنَ الظَّنِّ إِنَّ بَعضَ الظَّنِّ إِثمٌ ۖ وَلا تَجَسَّسوا وَلا يَغتَب بَعضُكُم بَعضًا ۚ أَيُحِبُّ أَحَدُكُم أَن يَأكُلَ لَحمَ أَخيهِ مَيتًا فَكَرِهتُموهُ ۚ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ تَوّابٌ رَحيمٌ

Yusuf Ali

O ye who believe! Avoid suspicion as much¹ (as possible): for suspicion in some cases is a sin: And spy not on each other behind their backs. Would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead² brother? Nay, ye would abhor it...But fear God. For God is Oft-Returning, Most Merciful.

Most kinds of suspicion are baseless and to be avoided, and some are crimes in themselves: for they do cruel injustice to innocent men and women. Spying, or enquiring too curiously into other people’s affairs, means either idle curiosity, and is therefore futile, or suspicion carried a stage further, which almost amounts to sin. Back-biting also is a brood of the same genus. It may be either futile but all the same mischievous, or it may be poisoned with malice, in which case it is a sin added to sin.
No one would like even to think of such an abomination as eating the flesh of his brother. But when the brother is dead, and the flesh is carrion, abomination is added to abomination. In the same way we are asked to refrain from hurting people’s feelings when they are present; how much worse is it when we say things, true or false, when they are absent!