DON’T LIVE IN SUSPICION

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)

Suspicion means believing something to be bad without there being any substantial evidence. Allowing suspicion to become a habit can have a disastrous effect on any society. In moral terms, suspicion is a sin and in the legal sense it is a crime. In both cases, it is to be completely avoided.

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.

The Prophet once 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.

It is said that man is a social animal. Collective living is must for mankind in this world. And 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 a spiritual pollution.

All those living in a 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.

There will be no unity and solidarity in such a society. This being so, its members will lose their self-confidence and will not venture to launch any large-scale project. This is because such projects need collective efforts and collective efforts are not possible in a society where people live in an atmosphere of suspicion.

Suspicion is not a single evil; it leads to many other evils. Suspicion is like a poisonous weed which rapidly multiplies in a jungle of moral evils. Suspicion has no plus points. On all counts it has only negative points. Anyone who wants to inculcate sound thinking in his mind must avoid suspicion at all costs.

When the individual develops the habit of suspicion, it gradually becomes his second nature. He starts suspecting everything, he loses conviction and he feels that every man and woman except himself is a suspicious person. He does not realize that suspicion is the result of confused thinking and that having a suspicious nature is very dangerous for himself as well as for other individuals.

Suspicion is a kind of confusion and confusion is like poison to the mind. It is quite in order to form opinions about others, but it is completely wrong to form opinions about others based on suspicion.