لَّوْلَآ إِذْ سَمِعْتُمُوهُ ظَنَّ ٱلْمُؤْمِنُونَ وَٱلْمُؤْمِنَـٰتُ بِأَنفُسِهِمْ خَيْرًا وَقَالُوا۟ هَـٰذَآ إِفْكٌ مُّبِينٌ Qur’an An-Nur (24:12)Lawl a i th samiAAtumoohu th anna almuminoona wa a lmumin a tu bianfusihim khayran waq a loo h atha ifkun mubeen un
Lit., "whenever you hear it" - the pronoun "you" indicating here the community as a whole.
Both men and women were involved in spreading the scandal. Their obvious duty was to put the best, not the worst, construction on the acts of one of the "mothers of the Believers".