Backbiting & Slandering

A Muslim is someonewho declaresthe sh~hadah'Thereis no god but Allah and Muhammad(saw)is

the final Messengerof
Allah.' This is the foundationupon which the Islamic personalityis based.Howevertoday we find that
amongstus in colleges,
mosquesand communities,the Islamic personalityhasbeenexchangedfor personalitieswhich
contradictwith the shahadah.

One of the major actionswhich Muslitns do which contradictswith Islam is that of backbiting.It
extendsto suchlevels that
Muslitns may talk aboutother Muslims in the lack of their presence.This is now commoneven
amonsgtsomeIslamic groups,let
alone individual Muslims. In many casesit becomes a social landmark to backbite Muslitns to build
one's own position. Sometimes
people talk about someone's physical features by saying she looks like so and so, or they discuss about
the lifestyle of Muslims,
or they discusswhat this or that group hassaid or done.

Sometimes such talk reaches the level of slander like "so and so is not honest" ,or "so and so is a
~
fasiq because he is not one of
s " or in extremecases,"so and so is Kafir" (disbeliever).

All in all, this produces relationships amongst Muslims of disbUSt, disunity and of non co-operation.
On top of all of this the ones
who undertakeof backbitingare in a stateof disobedienceto Allah (swt) and are thereforesinful.
Allah (swt) says:"Neither
backbiteone another.Would one of you love to eatthe flesh of his deadbrother.You abhor that (so
abhorthe other)! And keep
your duty to Allah. Lo! Allah is Relenting,Merciful." [EMQ al-Hujurat:12]

In one badith, narratedby Muslim on the authorityof Abu Hurairah,it is relatedthat the Messengerof
Allah (saw)askedthe
Sahabah,"Do you know what is meantby backbiting?They answered,Allah and His Messengerknow
better.He (saw) said,To
narrate such things about your brother which he dislikes. One of the audience asked, Even if my
brother may be like that? He
(saw) said,If suchdefectsasyou say,arepresentin him thenyou havebackbitedand if he doesnot
havewhat you say,then you
~ are committing slander."

In another hadith nalTated by Abu Dawud on the authority of Anas, the Messenger of Allah (saw) said,
"On the night ofIsra I
passed by some people who had copper nails and they were clawing their faces and chests with them. I
asked Gabriel, Who are
thesepeople?He said,Theseare the peoplewho eatthe flesh of humanbeingsand disgracedthem."

In another nan-ation by al- Tabarani on the authority oflbn Masood, he related, "We were sitting with
the Prophet (saw). Then a
man got up and left, whereuponanother personspokeill of him. The Prophet(saw)told him: Pick
your teeth.The man replied:
Why? I haven'teatenany meat.The Prophet(saw)replied:You haveeatenyour brother'sflesh."

It shouldbe clearto us all therefore,that the sin of backbitingis equivalentto eatingthe flesh of our
brother or sisterand is
subjectto the punishmentof Allah (swt) asthe evidencesprove. However,the Islanricpersonalityis
not only upheldby
 abstainingfrom backbitingbut if someonedoesbackbitethenyou areresponsibleto either discourage
listening to backbitingor
to contJadictthe backbiterand, if this basno effect, thenleavethe company.
In a badith narratedby Tirmidhi on the authority of Abu Darda,the Messengerof Allah said," A
personwho avoids
dishonouring his brother, Allah will keephis face awayfrom the Fire of Hell on the Day of
Judgement."

In anotherhadith in Ahmed'sMusnad,the Prophetof Allah said,"If anyonedefendshis brotherwho

is slanderedin his absence,
it will be (his) due from Allah to sethim free from the Fire,"

Also Allah (swt) says:"And when they hearvain talk. they withdraw from it" [EMQ al-Qasas:55]

Oneof the classicalmufassireen,Ibn Katbir, saysregardingthis ayahin his book Tafsir al-Qw'an al-
Azim, Vol 3, Page380, that Ibn
Ishaqnarratesthe asbabal-nazul(occasionof revelation)for this andthe precedingayat and says:that
twenty Christianscameto
Makkah to meetthe Prophetand seewhat his Messagewas about They found him and startedto
questionhim (saw).He (saw)
startedto recite the Qw'an. On hearingthe Qur'anand acknowledgingit they beganto cry and
acceptedIslam. After this they left
the Prophet(saw) to go back home.On the way they met Abu Jahl alongwith a group of peoplefrom
Quraysh.The peopleof
Qurayshblockedthe way and Abu Jahl saidto the new Muslims: You're useless.Your peoplesentyou
to prove for them that their
religion is correctand the Prophet'sis inconect. You changedyour religion and you believe in him.
We do not know anyonewho
is more stupidthan you. The Muslims answeredby saying:And when they hearvain talk they
withdraw from it and say:Unto us
our works andunto you your works. Peacebe unto you! We desirenot the ignorant The ayahwas
revealedconfirming the
statementthey made.

Ibo Kathir goesfurther to explain that mixing with peoplewho speakvain talk, ~~~g the people
who are ignorantor talk with
ignorance,shouldbe avoided.

The evidencesalso makeit clearthat when suspicionsor attacksagainstMuslims arepresentthen

Muslims shouldverify such
information to find out the bUthandnot to mix with peoplewhosetopic of discussionis basedon
ignorance,backbitingor
slander, in line with the ayahstatedearlier.

Backbiting and slanderare sinswhich affect the strengthof trust in the Ummahand it is clearthat
Allah (swt) doesnot pardon
Muslims until they havetakenpardonfrom the oneswho havebeenabused.

In one badith, narratedby BaYbaqion the authority of Anas,the Messengerof Allah (saw) said,"The
expiationof backbiting is to
seekforgivenessfrom the oneyou havebackbitten.saying:0 Allah! forgive us andhim."

In this ageit is of vital importanceto hold onto the rope of Allah. namelythe Qw'an and Sunnah,to
haveunity within the Ummah
and to enableour relationshipsto thrive with trust. Oncethe Islamic personalityis representedand the
sins of backbiting and
slanderare stoppedthen we know that the Ummahis working to follow the Guidance.