Indeed, those who came up with that ˹outrageous˺ slander are a group of you. Do not think this is bad for you. Rather, it is good for you.5 They will be punished, each according to their share of the sin. As for their mastermind,5 he will suffer a tremendous punishment.
Those who brought forward 2962 the lie are a body among yourselves: think it not to be an evil to you; On the contrary it is good 2963 for you: to every man among them (will come the punishment) of the sin that he earned, and to him 2964 who took on himself the lead among them, will be a penalty grievous.
2962 The particular incident here referred to occurred on the return from the expedition to Banu al Mustaliq, A.H. 5-6. When the march was ordered, 'A'ishah was not in her tent, having gone to search for a valuable necklace she had dropped. As her litter was veiled, it was not noticed that she was not in it, until the army reached the next halt. Meanwhile, finding the camp had gone, she sat down to rest, hoping that some one would come back to fetch her when her absence was noticed. It was night, and she fell asleep. Next morning she was found by Safwan, a Muhajir, who had been left behind in the camp expressly to pick up anything inadvertently left behind. He put her on his camel and brought her, leading the camel on foot. This gave occasion to enemies to raise a malicious scandal. The ringleader among them was the chief of the Madinah Hypocrites, 'Abdullah ibn Ubayy, who is referred to in the last clause of this verse. He had other sins and enormities to his debit, and he was left to the spiritual punishment of an unrepentant sinner, for he died in that state. The minor tools were given the legal punishment of the law, and after penitence mended their lives. They made good.
2963 It is the worse for a scandal to be whispered about with bated breath, than that it should be brought into the light of day and disproved.
2964 The ringleader: see n. 2962 above.
Verily, numerous among you are those who would falsely accuse others of unchastity: 12 [but, O you who are thus wronged,] deem it not a bad thing for you: nay, it is good for you! 13 [As for the slanderers,] unto every one of them [will be accounted] all that he has earned by [thus] sinning; and awesome suffering awaits any of them who takes it upon himself to enhance this [sin]! 14
12 Lit., "those who brought forth the lie (al-ifk, here denoting a false accusation of unchastity) are a numerous group (usbah) among you". The term usbah signifies any group of people, of indeterminate number, banded together for a particular purpose (Taj al-'Arus). According to all the commentators, the passage comprising verses 11-20 relates to an incident, which occurred on the Prophet’s return from the campaign against the tribe of Mustaliq in the year 5 H. The Prophet’s wife A’ishah, who had accompanied him on that expedition, was inadvertently left behind when the Muslims struck camp before dawn. After having spent several hours alone, she was found by one of the Prophet’s Companions, who led her to the next halting-place of the army. This incident gave rise to malicious insinuations of misconduct on the part of A’ishah; but these rumours were short-lived, and her innocence was established beyond all doubt. As is the case with all Quranic allusions to historical events, this one, too, is primarily meant to bring out an ethical proposition valid for all times and all social circumstances: and this is the reason why the grammatical construction of the above passage is such that the past-tense verbs occurring in verses 11-16 can be - and, I believe, should be - understood as denoting the present tense.
13 I.e., in the sight of God: for, the unhappiness caused by unjust persecution confers - as does every undeserved and patiently borne suffering - a spiritual merit on the person thus afflicted. Cf. the saying of the Prophet, quoted by Bukhari and Muslim: ‘‘Whenever a believer is stricken with any hardship, or pain, or anxiety, or sorrow, or harm, or distress - even if it be a thorn that has hurt him - God redeems thereby some of his failings."
14 I.e., by stressing, in a legally and morally inadmissible manner, certain "circumstantial" details or aspects of the case in order to make the slanderous, unfounded allegation more believable.
5 Because now you can tell who is a true believer and who is a hypocrite.