The Humanity of the Messenger, and the Ruling of Qadhf

Another lesson: Muḥammad (peace be upon him) was a human being, and he didn't know the unseen. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) himself suffered the pain of having people talk about his wife for an entire month. This went on for a month. If the Messenger of Allah knew al-ghayb, the unseen, he would have known that ʿĀ'ishah was innocent; but he suffered, just as Abū Bakr suffered and the wife of Abū Bakr suffered. And this shows us the humanity of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and that he went through what humans go through in this dunyā, and the same feelings of human beings.

Another lesson: the ruling of qadhf and its importance in protecting the Muslim community. If someone accuses a Muslim of zinā, adultery or fornication, they must produce four witnesses. If they don't, then they are flogged publicly, eighty lashes, and they are labelled as fāsiq, and their witness is not accepted.

So they are flogged, their witness is never accepted in court, and they are labelled as fāsiq; they are considered to be fāsiq. So it is a very serious thing, and the seriousness of the law reflects its objectives. This is to protect the Muslim community, and this shows how dangerous slandering in issues of immorality is. So we need to be very careful, because now this ruling isn't known, and sometimes people take this very lightly, and they talk about this sister and that brother — they did this and they did that — when there is no proof about it, and they don't realise that they are committing a major sin, just like drinking, or a person himself committing zinā. This is a major sin and that is a major sin. So the one who is accusing somebody of zinā is himself, by accusing them of committing zinā, committing an equal major sin.