Prohibition of Suspicion

Suspicion, su' az-zann in Arabic, is thinking ill of a fellow Muslim without cause. This brief chapter isolates it as the root from which spying, backbiting, and broken ties all grow, which is why it is named the worst of false tales.

The single hadith is short but searching. Buruja's takeaway is practical: when a thought about someone's wrong arrives unbidden, do not build a story on it, look instead for the better explanation and refuse to let the suspicion harden into conviction.