Lesson 3 of 6 · The sunnah already said this
Read what he actually said to them
They came expecting to be told something terrible about themselves. They had reached the point of not being able to repeat the words, which anybody in this pattern will recognise.
He did not warn them. He did not ask what the thought was. He did not set them a course of correction.
He told them that the very distress they were in about it was the sign, and he called it clear faith. Which inverts the entire reading you have been running on your own experience. On his reading, the horror you feel at the thought is not evidence against your belief. It is evidence of it, because you have to hold something dear before its opposite can appal you.
And the report in Bukhari settles the legal side, which is that what passes through the mind, unacted on and unspoken, is overlooked.
Qur’an and Sunnah
The whole argument sits on this. He did not warn them, did not ask what the thought was, and did not set them a course of correction. He told them the distress itself was the sign.
It is narrated on the authority of Abu Huraira that some people from amongst the Companions of the Apostle (ﷺ) came to him and said:Verily we perceive in our minds that which every one of us considers it too grave to express. He (the Holy Prophet) said: Do you really perceive it? They said: Yes. Upon this he remarked: That is the faith manifest
Sahih Muslim 132graded sound, sahihaynthe Arabic and its grading
And this one settles the legal side. What passes through the mind, unacted on and unspoken, is overlooked.
Narrated Abu Huraira:The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Allah has forgiven my followers the evil thoughts that occur to their minds, as long as such thoughts are not put into action or uttered." And Qatada said, "If someone divorces his wife just in his mind, such an unuttered divorce has no effect.:
Sahih al-Bukhari 5269graded sound, sahihaynthe Arabic and its grading