ظن
Ẓann
Doubt, suspicion or conjecture in the weightier matters of religion and ethics; the opposite of iman and yaqin
What it means
Ẓann is supposition, a judgement held without certainty. In the weighty matters of religion and ethics Ismail al Faruqi presents it as the opposite of īmān and yaqīn. The Quran rebukes those who follow nothing but conjecture (10:36), and says that conjecture is no substitute for the truth (53:28). It is also applied to ethics: “avoid much suspicion, for some suspicion is a sin” (49:12). Legal usage gives the word a different sense. Jurists call a ruling ẓannī when it rests on probable evidence, and they accept such evidence for most practical rulings. The context shows which meaning is intended.
Often misunderstood as
That it can be rendered as “opinion” or “thought”, which hides the Quranic criticism of conjecture on matters of belief.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 38, listed as ẒANN. The definition is restated here.