﴿ وَلَوْلَا فَضْلُ ٱللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَتُهُۥ فِى ٱلدُّنْيَا وَٱلْءَاخِرَةِ لَمَسَّكُمْ فِى مَآ أَفَضْتُمْ فِيهِ عَذَابٌ عَظِيمٌ ﴾

“And were it not for God’s favour upon you, [O men,] and His grace in this world and in the life to come, awesome suffering would indeed have afflicted you in result of all [the calumny] in which you indulge”

The role of the Prophet Muhammad was that of a preacher of Truth. The position of a preacher, or da‘i, is always extremely delicate. Even a slight mistake on his part can damage his entire mission. Those who lent an ear to baseless slander concerning a Muslim lady, namely ‘A’ishah, and started spreading it all around, were thus acting in a highly irresponsible manner. Had it not been for the timely refutation of the allegations—by direct intervention of God—this would have caused irreparable loss to Islam. Muslims would then have been divided into two groups and would have started fighting against each other. The community, which, according to God’s plan, was to serve as a means of eliminating the prevalence of polytheism from the world, would have destroyed itself in an internecine war.