Like feathers...

[Ismail]

Salaam.

Even like 'Like feathers flock together', we have like categories clubbed together in groups.

For example, in 16:90, we have three commandments, and also, three things forbidden.

In 2:18, we have, ...deaf, dumb, and blind....

Or, as in 49:12, where, they say, we are asked to avoid suspicion, spying, and backbiting.

{There is a Hadees, to the effect, that backbiting is worse than zina (fornication or adultery)!

Not only that. This Hadees has been deliberately and diligently spread among Muslims, like nothing else, at least in South India, as I have known very well. And I have reason to believe, that it is so all over the world.}

In Sura 49. verse 12, we have been fore-warned regarding three human traits, grouped as a trio consisting of (i) suspicion, (ii) spying, and (iii) backbiting.

In a human society, these three are unavoidable. By any stretch of imagination, we cannot assume a society sans these three traits:

(i) Suspicion is natural, and can lead to preventive measures against untoward incidents.

(ii) Spying can help to take preventive as well as curative measures against harm done by enemies.

(iii) Backbiting cannot be equated with complaining against some one in order to seek justice, or warning someone to be wary of a particular person or group.

Man, by nature, feels that these three traits, although unavoidable in particular situations and contexts, are, certainly, not to be indulged in, to the extent, that it becomes a threat to social harmony.

Sura 49. verse 12, translates thus: "O Those who believe! Desist from suspicion aplenty, for, some of it is sinful. Neither spy (inordinately), nor (habitually) backbite one another..."

After all, the Intelligence Department is the backbone of any government. And its stock-in-trade is cumulated suspicions, and regulated spying.

As for speaking ill of a person behind his back, the following example will suffice:

If you are a witness to someone committing zina in your neighborhood, and you want to bring the culprit to justice, you will have to create three more witnesses besides yourself. You cannot do this without thorough deliberation and meticulous planning.
                                               
About ZINA:  That all obscenities are forbidden, has been repeated umpteen number of times in Al Quran. Fornication and adultery are obscenities, and have been ranked among the deadliest of sins.

In one place (25:68-69) ZINA has been mentioned as one of a trio, along with joining partners in the worship of Allah, and murder, thereby proving beyond any doubt that it is one of the three most heinous, deadliest of sins, placed at the topmost slot among all the sins in the world.

It is the worst sin in the world, next only to invoking others beside Allah, and murder.

"Those who invoke not with Allah any other god, nor kill without absolute justification the life that Allah has made sacred, nor commit zina; - and any who does this (not only) meets punishment but the torment on the Day of Resurrection will be doubled for him and he will abide therein in utter ignominy." (25: 68, 69)

The original phrase translated here as "he will abide therein", belongs to the same root that is used to denote the punishment for shirk and kufr throughout the Quran: ie; khulood finnar (Kh L D). 

Now compare the trio in (49:12), and the trio in (25:68-69)!!

Even after crystal clear presentation of everything in Al Qur'an,  we - the purported standard bearers of Al Qur'an - have distorted our religion so appallingly, and with such blatant impunity, that our self conceit is matchless in the past and present world!                                                 

In spite of crystal clear verses of Al Quran, we equate geebath with zina! Worse still, we consider it to be worse than zina!!

Result:

When a young man sees that even good people, including religious leaders committing geebath in public, in his heart of hearts, the seriousness of zina diminishes.

"What if I commit zina? It is, after all, less serious than the backbiting that these respected persons do", he thinks, ......to the extent, that when he gets a fare chance to commit zina, he commits it with ease. This is the stage where the Ummah has reached.

To be continued as a new topic, In sha' Allah

Regards,
A. Ismail Sait.