Do not backbite Muslims

[ابوالوليد المسلم]

Do not backbite Muslims
حسام بن عبدالعزيز الجبرين



إن الحمد لله نحمده ونستعينه ونستغفره ونعوذ بالله من شرور أنفسنا ومن سيئات أعمالنا، من يهده الله فلا مضل له ومن يضلل فلا هادي، له وأشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له وأشهد أن محمداً عبده ورسوله.


﴿ يَاأَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ تُقَاتِهِ وَلَا تَمُوتُنَّ إِلَّا وَأَنْتُمْ مُسْلِمُونَ ﴾ [آل عمران: 102].


﴿ يَاأَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اتَّقُوا رَبَّكُمُ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُمْ مِنْ نَفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ وَخَلَقَ مِنْهَا زَوْجَهَا وَبَثَّ مِنْهُمَا رِجَالًا كَثِيرًا وَنِسَاءً وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ الَّذِي تَسَاءَلُونَ بِهِ وَالْأَرْحَامَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَلَيْكُمْ رَقِيبًا ﴾ [النساء: 1].


﴿ يَاأَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَقُولُوا قَوْلًا سَدِيدًا * يُصْلِحْ لَكُمْ أَعْمَالَكُمْ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ وَمَنْ يُطِعِ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ فَقَدْ فَازَ فَوْزًا عَظِيمًا ﴾ [الأحزاب: 70، 71].

Praise belongs to Allah, we praise Him, and we ask Him for help and forgiveness. We seek protection in Allah from the malice of our souls, and the evil of our actions. Whom Allah guides, no one can lead him astray, and whom He makes astray, no one can lead him back to the right path. I bear witness that there is no other deity but Allah alone.


who has no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and messenger.


“O you who believed! Fear Allah as He should be feared, and die not except as Muslims.”(Aali ‘Imran 3:102).


“O mankind, fear your Lord who created you from a single soul, and from it, He created its match, and spread many men and women from the two. Fear Allah in Whose name you ask each other (for your rights), and fear (the violation of the rights of) the womb-relations. Surely, Allah is watchful of you". (Al-Nisa:01).


“O you who believe, fear Allah and speak in straightforward words. If you do so, Allah will correct your deeds for your benefit, and forgive your sins for you. Whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger achieves a great success”. (Al-Ahzab:70-71).


To proceed,
The truest of word is the Book of Allah and best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad (Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). The worst of things are those that are newly invented; every newly-invented thing is an innovation and every innovation is going astray, and every going astray is in the Fire.


To proceed:
Brothers in faith,
Today we are talking about a bad characteristic in which women, men, youth and old ones are involved, except for those, Allah has mercy upon them. This is a social disease that breaks the bonds of love between Muslims, and it is one of the causes of igniting the fire of hostilities. It is a major sin that extinguishes the light of faith and degrades the rank of Ihsan(perfection). It is one of the causes of the torment of the grave. May God protect us and you.


It is a reason for losing your good deeds that you have achieved, and we seek refuge in Allah from losing. That is backbiting.

Servants of God,
God forbade us from backbiting, saying:
﴿ وَلَا يَغْتَبْ بَعْضُكُمْ بَعْضًا ﴾ [الحجرات: 12]
“and do not backbite one another”.


Backbiting means: mentioning something about your brother (in his absence), that he hates.


After the Almighty has prohibited from backbiting, He mentioned an analogy that shows ugliness and impurity of backbiting. He said:
﴿ أَيُحِبُّ أَحَدُكُمْ أَنْ يَأْكُلَ لَحْمَ أَخِيهِ مَيْتًا فَكَرِهْتُمُوهُ ﴾ [الحجرات: 12].
“Does one of you like that he eats the flesh of his dead brother? You would abhor it”.

Ibn Ashour said in his interpretation: “The intended purpose of analogy is to express harshness over backbiter, because backbiting is rampant among people, especially it was prevalent in the days of ignorance. So, the one who backbites his Muslim brother in his absence is like the one who eats the flesh of his dead brother who is unable to defend himself”.


Oh Allah, forgive us and those who backbite us and grant us to do sincere repentance!

Have you seen, brothers in Islam, how Allah the Almighty likened the backbiting to flesh of dead, while we backbite day and night except for little ones.


The ominous and evil of backbiting accompany us these days in our hand-held devices, how many are there social media sites where we backbite a scholar, a preacher, a player and others, and how much we make fun of nationalities and tribes and so on.

Honourable people,
Allah the Almighty determines graveness of the sin. It is not in the hand of people. And what His Messenger pbuh informed that people will frequently involve into backbiting, it does not mean that it is an easy sin.


Muaz bin Jabal was on a journey with the Messenger, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him. Muaaz said: "I accompanied the Prophet on a journey. One day I was near him while we were moving so I said: 'O Messenger of Allah! Inform me about an action by which I will be admitted into Paradise, and which will keep me far from the Fire.' He said: 'You have asked me about something great, but it is easy for whomever Allah makes it easy. Then the prophet pbuh mentioned five pillars of Islam and doors of goodness.


Then he said: Shall I not inform you about the head of the entire matter, and I said: 'Of course O Messenger of Allah! So, he grabbed his tongue. He said 'Restrain this.' I said: 'O Prophet of Allah! Will we be taken to account for what we say?' He said: 'May your mother grieve your loss O Muaaz! Are the people tossed into the Fire upon their faces, or upon their noses, except because of what their tongues have wrought’. narrated by Tirmizi.


And prophet said: “Whoever guarantees me (the chastity of) what is between his legs (i.e. his private parts), and what is between his jaws (i.e., his tongue), I guarantee him Paradise." Narrated by Al-Bukhari.


Servants of Allah,
Did you ride the sea? Did you fly over it, and it impressed you with its length and width? in the present time, despite the sewage water directs towards the sea, but it does not impact the water of sea.


Suppose that the word “backbiting” changes into a colour, in that case, it would affect the sea!


It is narrated on the authority of Aisha, may God be pleased with her, she said: I said to the Prophet: It is enough for you in Safiyyah that she is such and such (the other version than Musaddad's has meaning that she was short-statured. He replied; You have said a word which would change the sea if it were mixed in it”.


It is included by Abu Dawood, and it is authenticated by Al-Albani.


At times, such words may be detestable for one who hears them.

Backbiting, servants of God, is one of the causes of the torment of the grave.


In the hadith of Abu Dawood: The Prophet said: When I was taken up to heaven, I passed by people who had nails of copper and were scratching their faces and their breasts. I said: Who are these people, Gabriel? He replied: They are those who were given to back biting and who aspersed people's honour”. (Authenticated by Albaani).

Servants of God,
It is necessary to avoid backbiting and to denounce evil, and in the hadith: "Whoever protects his brother's honor, Allah protects his face from the Fire on the Day of Resurrection.".


Narrated by Al-Tirmidhi and authenticated by Al-Albani.


Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves… Oh God, we ask you for chastity of the heart, tongue, hearing and sight.


seek forgiveness from God that He is Forgiving.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Second sermon

Praise be to Allah...
Afterwards,
The tongue is a blessing but sometimes it becomes punishment. It can be a door to great goodness and a door to great badness, and backbiting is one of the most dangerous and widespread evils. May God helps us to avoid it and repent from it.


Backbiting is an act which indicates of weakness of Iman in the heart of backbiter. It is mentioned in the hadith that “the Prophet said: O community of people, who believed by their tongue, and belief did not enter their hearts, do not back-bite Muslims, and do not search for their faults”. Narrated by Abu Dawood and authenticated by Albaani.


Servants of Allah,
How many times Satan has deceived us by allowing backbiting in insignificant matters? Yes, scholars mentioned that backbiting is permissible for a valid legitimate purpose to which can not be reached except by backbiting, many evidences attest to it, and they are summed up in two poetry:

الذمُّ ليسَ بغيبةٍ في ستةٍ

متظلّمٍ ومعرِّفٍ و محذرِ

ولمظهرٍ فسقاً ومستفتٍ ومن

طلبَ الإعانةَ في إزالةِ منكرِ

“Slandering is not backbiting in six cases: for the one who is oppressed, for the who is introducing someone for the one who warns from someone. backbiting is also permissible for the person who commits evil acts publicly and for that person who seeks fatwa (Islamic ruling), and it is also permissible to ask for help to remove an evil”.

Islamic scholars said, for example, backbiting is permissible for a person whose borrower delays repaying his debt. He can say about his grievance, so-and-so has delayed my debt!


However, it is not permissible to backbite him and to provoke against him in other matters by counting his faults.


There is no doubt that a Muslim sometimes hesitates to speak, and he does not realize that what he wants to say is backbiting or not, as the person who is absent, would like it or dislike it. So, in such a situation we need to adopt fear and piety. Fadhil bin Ayyaz says:
‘We should be extra careful regarding uttering the words by tongue”.

Brothers in faith,
I will cite a number of reasons that help us to avoid backbiting, with Allah’s permission:
Among them is to make supplication and asking Allah for help.


what helps to avoid backbiting is to remind yourself of ugliness of backbiting and that the backbiting is like eating the flesh of a dead person.


what helps to keep oneself away from it, is advice and to find it distasteful.


what helps to avoid backbiting is the remembrance of Allah in gathering. Because the remembrance of Allah expels the devil.


sitting with the people who have purity in their tongue also helps to avoid backbiting.


and what helps to avoid backbiting is to reduce the physical and electronic contacts.


and what helps to be safe from backbiting: the shortening of the time of the session, It is reported by Al-Zuhri that “If the sitting is prolonged, then devil will certainly participate in in that gathering.”.


And what helps to avoid backbiting is. to remember that we are acquiring Bad deeds and loosing good deeds.


Ibn Al-Mubarak – may God have mercy on him – said: “If I were backbiting someone, I would backbite my parents, because they are more deserving of my good deeds.”

I concluded this talk with this hadith: Abu Hurairah narrated that the Messenger of Allah (s.a.w) said: "May Allah have mercy upon a servant who has wronged his brother in his honor of his wealth, then he comes to him to seek his pattern before (his right) is taken, when he has no Dinar nor Dirham. Then if he has any rewards, it will be taken from his rewards, and if he has no rewards, then some of his (brothers) bad deeds will be levied upon him". included by Al-Tirmidhi and Al-Bukhari.

﴿ أَلَمْ تَرَ أَنَّ اللَّهَ يَعْلَمُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ مَا يَكُونُ مِنْ نَجْوَى ثَلَاثَةٍ إِلَّا هُوَ رَابِعُهُمْ وَلَا خَمْسَةٍ إِلَّا هُوَ سَادِسُهُمْ وَلَا أَدْنَى مِنْ ذَلِكَ وَلَا أَكْثَرَ إِلَّا هُوَ مَعَهُمْ أَيْنَ مَا كَانُوا ثُمَّ يُنَبِّئُهُمْ بِمَا عَمِلُوا يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ ﴾ [المجادلة: 7].
“Have you not observed that Allah knows everything in the heavens and everything in the earth? No secret consulta-tion takes place between three, but He is fourth of them, nor between five, but He is sixth of them, nor between fewer than that or more, but He is with them wherever they may be. Then He will tell them on the Day of Judgment what they did. Surely Allah is All-Knowing about everything”.

Translated by: Alamgeer Usmani.