The Ruling on Spying on People and Their Private Matters, and Then Repenting Thereof
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh! If a person used to spy on people and their private matters, and then he repented, is it obligatory for him to seek their forgiveness, or is repentance sufficient?
Answer:
Repentance is sufficient, and he must stop doing this thing; he must stop doing this thing. Allah the Exalted said: “Do not spy”[Al-Hujurat 49:12] except if the one being spied upon poses a danger to the Muslims. If the one being spied upon poses a danger to the Muslims, such as a thief, a highway robber, a criminal, or one who distributes narcotics, or if he poses a danger to the Muslims, then spying on him in order to prevent his evil is permissible.
Honorable Shaykh! If a person used to spy on people and their private matters, and then he repented, is it obligatory for him to seek their forgiveness, or is repentance sufficient?
Answer:
Repentance is sufficient, and he must stop doing this thing; he must stop doing this thing. Allah the Exalted said: “Do not spy”
And do not spy or backbite each other.
وَلَا تَجَسَّسُوا وَلَا يَغْتَب بَّعْضُكُم بَعْضًا
Source
شرح بلوغ المرام من أدلة الأحكام [ صالح الفوزان ]، تتمة باب الرهب من مساوئ الأخلاق — islamhouse.com (1:02:16)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.