The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 345
PT. 18 AN-NÜR CH. 24 لَوْلَا إِذْ سَمِعْتُمُوهُ ظَ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ Why did not the believing. 13 men and believing women, وَالْمُؤْمِنتُ بِأَنْفُسِهِمْ خَيْرًا وَقَالُوا هَذَا when you heard of it, think well افك مبين E of their own people, and say, 'This is a manifest lie?' لَوْلَا جَاءُ وَ عَلَيْهِ بِأَرْبَعَةِ شُهَدَاءَ Why did they not bring four. 14 witnesses to prove it? Since when on the Holy Prophet's return from the expedition against Banī Mu- staliq in 5 A. H. , the Muslim army had to halt for the night at a place, a short distance from Medina. In this expedition, the Holy Prophet was accompanied by his noble wife, ‘Ā'ishah. As it happened ‘Ã'ishah went out some distance from the camp to attend to the call of nature. When she returned, she discovered that she had dropped her necklace somewhere. The necklace itself was of no great value, but as it was a loan from a friend, ‘Ā'ishah went out again to search for it. On her return, to her great grief and mortification she found that the army had already marched away with the camel she was riding, her attendants supposing that she was in the litter as she was then very young and light of weight. In her helplessness she sat down and cried till sleep overpowered her. Ṣafwān, a Muhajir, who was coming in the rear recognized her as he had seen her before the verse enjoining "purdah" was revealed and brought her on his camel to Medina, himself walking behind the animal (Bukhārī, Kitābun-Nikāḥ). The hypocrites of Medina, led by ‘Abdullah bin Ubayy bin Salul, were always on the lookout 2259 to create some mischief and cause distress to the Holy Prophet. They made capital out of this incident and spread a malicious scandal against A'ishah and unfortunately some of the Muslims also became associated with it. 'A'ishah's innocence was at last established in the present and the following few verses of the Quran. Those who had taken part in fabricating and spreading the accusation were punished and injunctions were revealed effectively to deal with scandal-mongers and their evil designs and activities. The words "who took the chief part," are understood to refer to Abdullah bin Ubayy, the leader of the hypocrites of Medina, who had invented the lie and gave it wide publicity. He died an ignominious death, frustrated in all his designs against Islam and in his ambition and aspiration to become the crowned king of Medina. The words, "think it not to be an evil for you, nay it is good for you," signify that the incident contained a great lesson for the Muslims. They were warned to be on their guard against falling victim to the machinations of scandal-mongers and