This story has been mentioned in all the authentic books of Ahadith. Once, our Holy Prophet (PBUH) was returning from somewhere with one of our Holy Mothers (May Allah be pleased with them). In the meantime, two of his companions, who were coming from the opposite, passed by them. Holy Prophet (PBUH) called them and told them that he was with his wife and not anyone else. The companions at once said, “O Prophet of Allah, How can we think of anything else?” To this our wise Prophet (PBUH) said, “I know that you cannot think anything else but I thought better of clarifying this as evil forces are always trying to lead astray a believer by making him think negative about others. I did not want that you should commit any sin by falling in the trap of the evil.”
In the past Ramazan, a friend of mine fell ill. Due to extreme weakness, he was not able to join the prayers of Tarawih in mosque for which he was very unhappy. Next day, though he was still weak and had some fever, joined the prayers. After some time, he felt very weak and then he sat and completed the rest of the prayers in the same position. He was young, strong and tall by stature and thus looked very odd who was offering prayers just like very old and weak men. Whoever passed by, looked at him and stared him for a while. But they did not know the real situation. When there was a break between the prayers, he shook hands with the two men offering prayers on his either sides and told them about his inability to stand up. Both of them tried to comfort him and praised him for his effort and sincerity. One of them smiled and thanked him for informing and told him that he had presumed him to be very lazy as he was young and strong and yet he was offering prayers while sitting on the floor.
When we don’t about the reality of something, it is better we should not make any kind of guess about something because these guesses thus made are usually negative and results in the problems between the relations of people.
Similarly, with our negative guesses, we not only put ourselves in pain but mostly we disturb the privacy of others as well.
While making a guess, we can make either a negative or a positive guess.
Many years back, a very good looking old man started living in our hotel. He always wore white clothes and looked very religious. He always went to the mosque on time and had very nice and gentle manners. With the passage of time, love of people increased with him, some due to his religious pithy and some due to his very nice manners. He told the people that he had done a business transaction and was waiting for his money to come from Dubai. He never accepted anything from others and spent his money very generously. He always ate good food and also used to bring a lot of fruit and juices which he shared with others. People started believing in him as a rich and a pious man. Now almost two weeks passed by and he was respected for being a pious man by every member of the restaurant including the customers.
One day, when I was alone and busy in study in my room, he silently came into the room. I stood up in respect and made him sit in my chair. I offered him tea but he refused to take anything. He told me that he was waiting desperately for his money from Dubai which had got late due to some unavoidable circumstances. Now he was a bit short of money and it was very difficult for him to ask but he wanted to borrow some money from me for a few days, till his money arrived from Dubai. I asked him if how much he wanted. He told me that he wanted 2000 rupees because he did not want to ask anyone else. I was not having the sum with me but anyhow I arranged it for him. When he took the money, he gave me a little advice. He told me not to tell this to anyone because people respected him a lot and he did not want that this respect should decrease if they came to know about it and then he would secretly return my money. I gave him my words in this regard.
After a few days, the old man (whom we called Haji Baba) suddenly disappeared. No one knew where he had gone but they were sure that he had gone by some business work and would soon return. Two weeks passed by and there was no news about Haji Baba. This made me a bit concerned and different doubts started rising in my head. One day, I was sitting with our cashier and some loyal customers and we were discussing Haji Baba. A month had passed and there was no news about him. With slight hesitation, I told them that I had lent some money to Haji Baba and I had promised not to inform anyone about this. As I was telling this, our cashier jumped up with surprise. He told us that Haji Baba had taken 1 thousand from him as well and he had also made a similar promise. Then it was the turn of our customers and two of them had also given some money to Haji Baba. The process didn’t stop here as well and then we discovered that he had taken money from my father, our neighboring shopkeepers, my younger brother, some more customers, the cook and almost everyone. He had taken away more than 50 thousand rupees. Now it was clear that we had made a grave mistake in understanding the old man and he had taken full benefit of our blind faith.
A man used to avoid sitting in the company of others and hardly used to talk to people. People hated him and presumed him to be very haughty and ill-mannered. When he died, it was revealed that he had a strange disease that could have easily inflicted the other and thus he was advised to keep away from the people.
It is good that we should presume others to be nice and good people but at the same time, we should be careful as not to be a victim of their evil plot or treachery.
Similarly, when we don’t know the reality, we should stop making negative guesses about others. We may not know, but the reality may not be the same!