His saying, exalted and glorified is He:

"Had it not been when you heard it, the believers, men and women, thought well of themselves and said, 'This is a clear falsehood.'" "Had they brought four witnesses against it, then if they had not come with the witnesses, those are with Allah the liars."

The address in these two verses is to all the believers except for those who committed the major sin. It is possible that they are included in the address. In this is a reprimand for the believers, meaning: it was obligatory upon them to deny it. The meaning is that the virtuous among the believers, men and women, should have measured the matter against themselves. If that were far from them, they would have judged that it was even farther from [the likes of] Safwan and Aisha, may Allah be pleased with them. It has been narrated that this sound reasoning came from Abu Ayyub al-Ansari and his wife. This is because he entered upon her and she said to him: "O Abu Ayyub, have you heard what has been said?" He said: "Yes, and that is a lie. Would you, O Umm Ayyub, do that?" She said: "No, by Allah." He said: "Then Aisha, by Allah, is better than you." Umm Ayyub said: "Yes."

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

That action and the like is what Allah reprimanded the believers for, as not all of them acted upon it. The pronoun in His saying, "they came," refers to those who committed the major sin. If they are considered liars with Allah, then that is the truth about them. In this, they were limited, and it has not been narrated in the famous records that Abdullah ibn Ubayy was punished. It seems that this was not because there was no clear statement against his hypocrisy and concealment, but rather because he was involved with those who spread it and did not ask about his testimony, as Urwah said in al-Bukhari: "And I was informed that he used to acknowledge it and seek counsel from it."

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

However, the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, sought refuge from him on the pulpit, and he condemned him with words. The matter between the Aws and Khazraj became lengthy in Muslim in the general narration of the incident of slander.