So Allah over here he says (‌اجْتَنِبُوا ‌كَثِيرًا ‌مِنَ ‌الظَّنِّ), stay away from lots and lots of
thought okay. This is quite important over here, Allah (swt)
says "اجْتَنِبُوا " alright, "اجْتَنِبُوا" means staying away. But the word
"اجْتَنِبُوا" is unique in that it comes from the word جانب, which
means the side of something, okay? So Allah (swt) says, If thoughts
are in one direction, you go on the other direction, if thoughts are on
one side of something, you go on the other side of something, if
evil seems to be over here in terms of thought, in terms of you
thinking something evil of your brother, then you go on the other
direction altogether. So literally, you part ways with this thought,
right? But then Allah (swt) says (‌اجْتَنِبُوا ‌كَثِيرًا ‌مِنَ ‌الظَّنِّ) part your ways from lots
and lots of thought. But we know that many times we are told to
think we're told to have thoughts. And we know that الظن, which is
basically an ability to perceive something is is something that is
praiseworthy in Islam. And we know that the ability to perceive
something is how we understand the Quran and the Sunnah, and so on and
so forth. Right? So why is Allah (swt) telling us to stay away from
these thoughts? Allah(swt) is telling you to take a back step.
And then when you see this thought, before you walk right into the
thought, before you start thinking that way, before you start, you
know, basically translating everything around you based on that
thought, take a back step, take a moment away from it, look at it,
carefully observe it, understand it, and then if it's good, you go
with it. And if it's not, then Allah (swt) says, (إِنَّ بَعْضَ الظَّنِّ إِثْمٌ), indeed a
portion of that thought that you were staying away from is going to
be sin. So you stay, you take a back step, you move away, you part
your ways, then you observe it from a distance, so that you can
objectively look at something. And then after you're done objectively
looking at that something, then you are able to make a decision. This
information that I've heard or thought about of someone else. I
saw someone at the mall and the example that we gave of the brother
and sister at the mall. Well, they could have been doing a lot of
things that are even halal, I don't have to think the haraam way,
necessarily, right. So you parted ways with what you could have
perceived subjectively. And now you're able to think of something
objectively. And this is what Allah (swt) wants you to do in order for
you to decipher good thoughts from evil thoughts. Allah says a portion
of those thoughts will always be evil (إِنَّ بَعْضَ الظَّنِّ إِثْمٌ), a portion of those
thoughts will always be evil. And evil can be said in many different
ways. Allah (swt) chooses the word "إثم" over here, ism comes from
the word "وثم". "وثم" means to break something or cut something
off, right? So the reason why these evil thoughts are "ithm" is because
they cut things off. Meaning what if you're an employee, and your
employer is always having evil thoughts about you stealing, and
your employer is always having evil thoughts about you not doing your
job right. So he comes and starts, for example, spying on the
individual, he comes in starts implementing things to try to make
sure that that perceived idea is not actually occurring, the theft
that he thought of is not actually happening, right? numbers may not
be adding up in the finances. So the employer starts to have evil
thoughts about his employee, right? All of these things, right as
they're happening, or for example, when people have evil thoughts
about masjid boards right?
You look at a Masjid that is doing things for the sake of Allah (swt)
they're paying their bills right a masjid has bills in terms of
electricity. And masjid has bills in terms of, in terms of parking a
masjid has bills to take care of in terms of in terms of hydro, in
terms of air conditioning, a lot of different things, heating if they
have to have that right a masjid has bills in terms of insurance, so
mustard has bills in terms of lots maintenance, carpet cleaning, roof,
you know, just maintenance in general fixing roofs, lighting,
lots of different things, right? People sometimes they look at just
the money that's going into the messier in the fundraisers and
they're like this masjid, this corrupt we gave them $150,000 last
Ramadan, and they haven't done anything with it. Well, who's
paying the bills? Who's paying the rent? Who's paying the installments
if they're still purchasing their center. They have to use some money
for that right? So Allah (swt) says, if you have evil thoughts and
you live by them, then this will be isn't this will be destructive. It
will destroy your job, when you're having evil thoughts with your
employer. It will destroy your company if the employer is happy
Evil talks with all these employees, it will destroy your
center. If you have evil thoughts with the entire community. It will
destroy your center and you won't be able to live and and take
benefit from the center if you are having evil thoughts and constantly
so with the people that are taking care of this centre (إِنَّ بَعْضَ الظَّنِّ إِثْمٌ), a
portion of that safe portion of that thought is "ithm". It cuts
things off it shatters things. It destroys things.