The 365 · Tazkiyah · Day 317 · Money
Suʾ al-Ẓann bi-Tawbah al-Ākharīn · Refusing Another's Return
The disease
سُوءُ الظَّنِّ بِتَوْبَةِ الْآخَرِينَ
Suʾ al-Ẓann bi-Tawbah al-Ākharīn
The story
Hind bint ʿUtbah, the wife of Abū Sufyān, had eaten the liver of Sayyiduna Ḥamzah in the battle of Uḥud. When she came to give bayʿah after the opening of Makkah, the Prophet ﷺ accepted her Islam without bringing up her past. She became a Companion. If the Prophet ﷺ welcomed her, who are we to keep an account against a brother who once cheated us in a deal and has since paid back, with interest?
Why it's named first
Allah accepts tawbah even from those who had committed kufr after īmān: 'except those who repent after that and reform; indeed, Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.' If Allah, the wronged Party, accepts a returner, who are we to deny acceptance? The disease of suʾ al-ẓann blocks the Ummah's mercy circuit: a person returns from cheating, and we hold the cheating against him for years; he returns from ribā, and we exclude him from leadership; he returns from theft, and we never trust him again. The verse closes the door we keep open.
In the Qur'an
إِلَّا الَّذِينَ تَابُوا مِن بَعْدِ ذَلِكَ وَأَصْلَحُوا فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ (آل عمران 89). 'Except those who repent after that and reform; indeed, Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.' (Āl ʿImrān 3:89)
In the Sunnah
«التَّائِبُ مِنَ الذَّنْبِ كَمَنْ لَا ذَنْبَ لَهُ». 'The one who repents from sin is like the one who has no sin.' (Ibn Majah 4250, with corroborating chains in Bukhari and Muslim)
The cure
When a brother or sister returns from a Money sin (publicly or privately), treat them as Allah does: as one with no sin. Do not keep mental archives of their old wrong. Do not exclude them from circles of trust. The Prophet ﷺ welcomed people whose past included idolatry, theft, and bloodshed. Their past did not follow them past the door of his welcome.
What is at stake
Suʾ al-ẓann about another's repentance hardens the heart and isolates the returner. The Ummah loses a recovered believer, and the disease-bearer earns the burden of stranding a brother. The Day of Judgement will reveal who closed doors that Allah had opened.
A du'a for this day
'O Allah, accept the tawbah of every believer who returns, and make me a doorway of welcome, not a wall.'
The door of mercy
Al-Ghafūr, al-Raḥīm: the two attributes named at the end of the verse. The believer who reflects these Names in his treatment of returning brothers reflects Allah Himself.
A reflection to carry
Tawbah from a wronged Party is honored; tawbah from the unworthy Party (us) is refused too often. We are the lesser; we should be the easier.
Read the longer reflection
There is a quiet violence in withholding our acceptance from a believer's tawbah. We become a wall where Allah is a door. We hold archives where Allah closed accounts. We narrate old crimes where Allah authored new histories. The Qur'an's 'illā alladhīna tābū' is a recurring phrase precisely because the human reflex is to discount tawbah. Allah keeps inserting the exception to remind us: even after major sin, the door is open. So when a brother returns from a Money wrong, your tongue's first instinct should be to welcome, not to interrogate. Your mental archive should be deleted, not consulted. The Prophet ﷺ never weaponized a Companion's pre-Islamic life. May we model his welcome, and may Allah cover what we have done as fully as we cover the past of those who return to Him.
A verse, a healing, and a Sunnah, every morning.
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