O believers! Avoid many suspicions, ˹for˺ indeed, some suspicions are sinful. And do not spy, nor backbite one another. Would any of you like to eat the flesh of their dead brother? You would despise that!5 And fear Allah. Surely Allah is ˹the˺ Accepter of Repentance, Most Merciful.
O you who believe! Avoid suspicion as much 4931 (as possible): for suspicion in some cases is a sin: And spy not on each other behind their backs. Would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead 4932 brother? No, you would abhor it...But fear Allah. For Allah is Oft-Returning, Most Merciful.
4931 Most kinds of suspicion are baseless and to be avoided, and some are crimes in themselves: for they do cruel injustice to innocent men and women. Spying, or enquiring too curiously into other people's affairs, means either idle curiosity, and is therefore futile, or suspicion carried a stage further, which almost amounts to sin. Back-biting also is a brood of the same genus. It may be either futile but all the same mischievous, or it may be poisoned with malice, in which case it is a sin added to sin.
4932 No one would like even to think of such an abomination as eating the flesh of his brother. But when the brother is dead, and the flesh is carrion, abomination is added to abomination. In the same way we are asked to refrain from hurting people's feelings when they are present; how much worse is it when we say things, true or false, when they are absent!
O you who have attained to faith! Avoid most guesswork [about one another] 14 for, behold, some of [such] guesswork is [in itself] a sin; and do not spy upon one another, and neither allow yourselves to speak ill of one another behind your backs. Would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? Nay, you would loathe it! And be conscious of God. Verily, God is an acceptor of repentance, a dispenser of grace!
14 I.e., guesswork that may lead to unfounded suspicion of another person’s motives: see note 22 on 24:19.
5 Backbiting people is likened to eating their dead bodies. So if eating someone’s flesh is detestable, then backbiting them is no different.