Continuation of the chapter: "The Chapter on Being Open with People."

The Shaykh : From Jabir ibn Nufayr, that he heard Mu'awiyah say: I heard from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): .
This is a hadith in which the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) addressed Mu'awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan, and that was before he took on kingship. The scholars say that in the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) addressing Mu'awiyah with such a hadith, there is a subtle hint that he might one day take on the authority over people and their affairs. Therefore, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) advised him not to deal with them based on bad suspicion, casting doubt, and suspicion upon them. He said to him (may the prayers and peace of Allah be upon him): meaning: If you suspect them of bad and deal with them based on bad suspicion of them, that will be a driver and incentive for them to commit what it is for which you have suspected them of. It is not permissible for a Muslim to have bad suspicion of his Muslim brother, especially if he has general authority over people; it is not befitting for him to deal with them based on bad suspicion of them, because his bad suspicion of them leads them to be at the level of his bad suspicion of them. As it is known, a person who has some authority over another, if he is frank with him or deals with him based on good suspicion of him, that person is usually at the level of the good suspicion held of him. Similarly, the opposite is the case: if the president, whether the president of the state or the president of the village or similar positions, has good suspicion of people, that is one of the incentives and motivations for his followers to be at the level of his good suspicion of them. And the opposite is exactly the opposite: if he has bad suspicion of them, they will be at the level of his bad suspicion of them. Similar to this hadith is what came in *Sahih Muslim*: The meaning of that is that bad suspicion of his family was cast in his soul, and therefore he surprised and ambushed them at night. The Messenger (peace be upon him) forbade this from this angle, because if you surprise your family at night, that leads your family to have bad suspicion of you, just as you surprised them at night and made them think you have bad suspicion of them; likewise, they deal with you with such behavior. It is known in the custom of people that if a person is accused of a charge and is innocent of this charge, and he tries to refute the charge from himself but cannot, what is the fate of this accused person? As we often hear, people are talking about us, so let us do what they are talking about us. From here, this hadith is of the utmost wisdom in planning for the ruler in dealing with the ruled: he should have good suspicion of them, not bad suspicion, because his dealing with them based on bad suspicion, as he said in this hadith, corrupts them.
And this corruption has been explained by us with such previous speech. The goal of the hadith and its purpose is that Muslims deal with each other based on good suspicion of one another, and not based on bad suspicion, especially those among them who have general authority, such as the ruler, or specific authority, such as a man in his household. Therefore, the Messenger (peace be upon him) forbade a man to surprise his family at night, to ambush them or seek out their faults.
The hadith that follows is a weak hadith.