EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BACKBITING (GHĪBAH) AND GOSSIPING (NAMĪMAH)
what is backbiting?1- on the authority of abū hurayrah [رضي الله عنه] who said:
the prophet ﷺ said: “do you know what ghībah (backbiting) is?”
they said “Allāh and His messenger know best”.
he ﷺ said: “mentioning your brother with what he dislikes.”
2- when ibn ʿumar was asked what backbiting is he said:
backbiting is to say what is true [about your brother] (behind his back) and slander is to say what isn’t true [about your brother] (behind his back).
3- ʿawn bin ʿabdillāh said:
if you say about a man what you know he will dislike, then you have backbitten him.
4- al-ḥasan said:
we fear that our saying: “ḥumayd is tall” is backbiting.
5- on the authority of ʿāʾishah [رضي الله عنها] who said:
i mentioned a woman once, and i said about her: “she is short” so the nabī ﷺ said to me: you backbited her.
the consequences of ghībah6- kaʿab [رحمه الله] said:
indeed, backbiting corrupts good deeds.
7- qatādah [رحمه الله] said:
it was mentioned to us that the punishment of the grave is split into three: a third for backbiting, a third for not cleaning oneself properly after urinating and a third for gossiping.
8- ʿumar bin al-khaṭṭāb [رضي الله عنه] said:
don’t busy yourselves with mentioning other people for indeed it is a calamity, but rather upon you is mentioning Allāh, for it is mercy.
9- abū al-dardāʾ [رضي الله عنه] said:
i advise you with mentioning Allāh, as it is a cure, and i prohibit you from mentioning other people, as it is a disease (for the heart.)
10- jābir said:
we were sitting with the prophet ﷺ, when we smelt the stench of a rotting corpse, so the prophet ﷺ said: “do you know what this smell is? indeed, this smell is that of those who backbite the believers.”
the prohibition of being two-faced
11- on the authority of ʿammār bin yāsir who said that the messenger of Allāh ﷺ said:
whoever is two-faced in the dunyā will have two tongues of fire on yawmul qiyāmah.
12- on the authority of abū hurayrah who said that the prophet ﷺ said:
you will find that the most evil of Allāh’s servants on yawmul qiyāmah is the one with two faces, the one who goes to some people with some speech, and then goes to other people speaking about the first group, and then goes to other other people speaking about the other groups.
13- gharīb al-hamdānī said:
i said to ibn ʿumar: when we used to enter upon people, we would praise them for that which they don’t have, then when they left us we would make duʿāʾ to Allāh against them.
so ibn ʿumar told me: “we used to consider this to be hypocrisy.”
14- abū al-shaʿthāʾ said:
i said to ibn ʿumar: when people would enter upon us, we would speak to them normally, then when we leave, we would say other than that.
ibn ʿumar then said: “in the time of the messenger ﷺ, we would count that as hypocrisy.”
15- al-ḥasan used to say:
beware of backbiting, for by Allāh, it is faster in giving good deeds [to the one who was backbit] than wood being burnt by fire.
when is backbiting allowed?16- the prophet ﷺ said:
do you care about mentioning the wicked-person when people will know him? mention him with what he does, so you can warn the people of him.
17- zayd bin aslam [رحمه الله] said:
rather, [it only counts as] backbiting for those who do not make their sins public.
18- ibrāhīm al-nakhaʿī [رحمه الله] said:
there are three whom we did not consider [mentioning them] to be backbiting: the wrongdoer, fāsiq and a person of bidʿah (heresy, innovation).
19- al-ḥasan [رضي الله عنه] said:
there is no prohibition [of backbiting] between you and a fāsiq.
20- al-ḥasan [رضي الله عنه] also said:
there is no [ruling of] backbiting for the mubtadiʿ (heretic).
21- rasūl Allāh ﷺ said:
indeed, when the fāsiq is praised, Allāh is angered and His throne shakes because of that.
22- al-ṣaltu bin ṭarīf said:
i asked al-ḥasan: if i mention a fāsiq who publicises his sin by what he does, have i fallen into backbiting?
he said: “no, for he has no worth.”
23- zāʾidah bin qudāmah said:
i asked manṣūr bin al-muʿtamir: when i am fasting, can i insult the ruler?
he said: no.
so i asked: what about a person of desires (i.e. an innovator)?
he said: yes.
24- al-ḥasan said:
if someone’s ʿawrah is showing, then there is no [ruling of] ghībah for them, and the same goes for the effeminate man (i.e. a homosexual).
the expiation for backbiting25- mujāhid [رحمه الله] said:
the expiation for backbiting your brother is to praise him and make duʿāʾ for him.
26- abī ḥāzim [رضي الله عنه] said:
the expiation for backbiting is to seek forgiveness for the one you backbit.
what has been reported regarding gossiping (namīmah)27- the messenger of Allāh ﷺ said:
the gossiper will not enter jannah.
28- shubayl bin ʿawf used to say:
whoever hears of an act of wickedness, then spreads it, then he is like the one who started it.
29- ḥakīm bin jābir [رحمه الله] said:
whoever spreads an act of wickedness is like the one who starts it.
30- the prophet ﷺ said:
the best servants of Allāh are those who remind you of
Allāh when they are seen. the worst servants of Allāh are those who carry gossip, separating between loved ones and seeking misery for the innocent.
[TAKEN FROM: DHAMM AL-GHĪBAH BY IBN ABĪ AL-DUNYĀ]
(translated by abū idrīs al-sūdānī)ibn qudāmah said:
know that gossip mainly applies to a person speaking about another, like for example, saying: “so and so said such and such abouf you,” yet it is not restricted to just this. it is also in regards to dislike that which is disliked to disclose, from a saying or action. even if you saw a person bury wealth for himself and you were to mention that to someone else it is deemed as gossiping. all which is transmitted in such was in gossip. in such case, there are six things you should do when receiving such tales:
1- do not believe him, for the testimony of a gossiper is rejected
2- advise the gossiper and warn him from such actions
3- hate him for the sake of Allāh, for Allāh hates him
4- do not think evil of the one who he is gossiping to you about
5- do not investigate to see if it’s true or not
6- do not tell anything that the gossiper told you to anyone else.
yaḥyā bin abī kathīr said:
a gossiper destroys in an hour what a magician can’t destroy in a month.
[TAKEN FROM: MUKHTAṢAR MINḤĀJ AL-QĀṢIDĪN]
(translated by dār as-sunnah)#Backbiting #Ghibah #Sin
