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History turns on strange pivots.
Two of the world’s largest religions were shaped by a single sin: slander. Also called Buhtaan in Urdu.
Not theft.
Not murder.
Slander.
From Adam (AS) until Muhammad ﷺ, there was only one truth: Islam. And Ibrahim (AS) called his followers Muslims. But slander tore his followers apart. The 1st division was caused by people who committed slander, and the 2nd division by people who believed in it.
The Jews accused Maryam (AS). A child outside wedlock? Impossible for a prophet.
So when Isa (AS) claimed prophethood, they rejected him, not based on revelation, but on the weight of rumours. A logical conclusion: Yes, but built on false foundations.
The Christians couldn’t ignore the fact that Isa (AS) was a prophet. But to protect Isa and Maryam’s honour, they bent the truth another way.
Son of God. A divine wrap around a human sin.
Neither side could prove what they claimed happened. But both religions were marked forever by the accusation against one woman.
The Quran reminded the Muslims and defended Maryam (AS) with verses recited until the end of time: “And she who guarded her chastity, so We breathed into her of Our spirit…” (21:91).
Her honour was made sacred in revelation itself. And Islam went further. It closed the door to such slander altogether.
The Quran decrees: “Those who launch a charge against chaste women and do not produce four witnesses, flog them with eighty stripes and never accept their testimony again.” (24:4)
Four men. Witnessing the same act. Otherwise, silence.
Scholars carried this ruling to its extreme clarity.
If a woman bore a child while living thousands of miles away from her husband, even if it seemed “logically impossible”, no accusation could be made. Logic is not evidence. Rumour is not proof.
The only one given the right to question is her husband, and even then, only through the solemn process, a court-bound mutual oath where both sides invoke Allah’s curse if lying (Surah An-Nur, 24:6-9).
This is the wall Islam built around a woman’s honour.
Impenetrable. Absolute.
But here is the warning that should terrify us.
When Muslims today gossip, accuse, and slander, without proof, without witnesses, without restraint, they walk the same roads.
If they had lived in Maryam’s time, some would have been the Jews who accused.
Others would have been the Christians who tried to defend by inventing stories, because deep down, they too believed the lie.
And we must ask ourselves:
How many things do we accept today without evidence?
How many narratives do we believe just because they’re mainstream?
How much of what we call “truth” is nothing but assumption dressed in confidence?
If slander once fractured Islam’s followers into Jews and Christians, what will it do to Muslims today who commit the same sin?
Ahmed Velmi
Critical Thinking – B2
24-03-1447
