Gheebah( Backbiting)

اَلسَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُم (As-salāmu ʿalaykum, “May Allah's peace be upon you”).

   بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم Bismi-llāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīm

(In the name of Allah, Most Gracious,Most Merciful)

Al-ḥamdu lillāh ( الحَمْد لله‎) "All praise be to God"

Sins of the Tongue - Backbiting

Gheebah (backbiting, gossip) means that a person mentions the faults of his Muslim brother in his absence, which he would not like if he heard about it, when there is no need to mention them.

When I say “mentions the faults of his brother”, this excludes cases when the other person says something to praise or commend him.
When I say “Muslim brother”, this excludes the kafir (non-Muslim), for there is no gheebah in the case of a kafir.

When I say, “in his absence”, this excludes things said in his presence, which is not called gheebah according to the more correct of the two scholarly opinions.
When I say, “which he would dislike if he heard about it”, this excludes things which he would not mind.

When I say, “when there is no need to mention them”, this excludes cases when there is a shar’i (legal religious) reason for doing that, such as warning against an innovator to make people aware of his bid’ah (innovation).

It is essential to pay attention to the following in such cases:
1. Sincerity towards Allah and seeking His pleasure.
2. Paying attention to the interests being served by such things.
3. What is said should be limited to the shortcomings in question and should not go further, to matters in which there is no benefit.

The scholars agreed that it is haram (impermissible) to talk behind a person’s back for no legitimate purpose.

Most of them stated that this is a major sin and that it varies in degree, some kinds being worse than others. The one who backbites about a scholar is not like one who backbites about an ignorant person. Allah says (interpretation of the meaning):
“… neither backbite one another. Would one of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? You would hate it (so hate backbiting). And fear Allah. Verily, Allah is the One Who forgives and accepts repentance, Most Merciful” [49:12]

In Saheeh Muslim it is narrated from al-‘Ala ibn ‘Abd al-Rahman from his father from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “Do you know what gheebah is?” They said, “Allah and His Messenger know best.” He said, “That you say something about your brother that he dislikes.” He was asked, “What if what I say about my brother is true?” He said, “If what you say is true then you have gossiped about him, and if it is not true then you have slandered him.”

(slander-the action or crime of making a false spoken statement damaging to a person’s reputation.)

Abu Dawood narrated in his Sunan via Nawfal ibn Masahiq from Sa’eed ibn Zayd that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “The most prevalent kind of usury (riba) is going to lengths in talking unjustly against a Muslim’s honour.”

(usury-the practice of lending money at unreasonably high rates of interest)

And he (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “Your blood, your wealth and your honour are sacred among you, as sacred as this day of yours in this month of yours in this land of yours. Let those who are present convey it to those who are absent; perhaps he will convey it to one who has more understanding than he does.” (Agreed upon, from the hadeeth of Abu Bakrah).

One of the worst types of gheebah and one which is most emphatically forbidden is to look down upon a Muslim and do one’s utmost to insult him, show disrespect towards him and cast aspersions upon his honour.

This is a blameworthy(responsible for wrongdoing and deserving of censure or blame) characteristic and a serious malady(a disease or ailment); it is one of the major sins and the one who does this is subject to the warning and a severe punishment.

The Muslim has to guard his tongue and avoid things that have been forbidden. Among these forbidden things which people often take lightly are gheebah (backbiting), buhtan (slander) and nameemah (malicious gossip).

Gheebah or backbiting means speaking about a Muslim in his absence and saying things that he would not like to have spread around or mentioned. Buhtan or slander means saying things about a Muslim that are not true, or in other words telling lies about him. Nameemah or malicious gossip means telling one person what another said in order to cause trouble between them.

There is a great deal of evidence to show that these actions are haram (impermissible). It will suffice for us to mention just a few of them in order to demonstrate that they are haram.

Allah says (interpretation of the meaning):
“neither backbite one another. Would one of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? You would hate it (so hate backbiting). And fear Allah. Verily, Allah is the One Who forgives and accepts repentance, Most Merciful” [49:12]

It was narrated from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “Do you know what gheebah (backbiting) is?” They said, “Allah and His Messenger know best.” He said, “Saying something about your brother that he dislikes.” It was said, “What if what I say about my brother is true?” He said, “If what you say is true then you have backbitten about him, and if it is not true, then you have slandered him.”
[Muslim]

It was narrated that Ibn ‘Abbas said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) passed by two graves and said, “They are being punished, but they are not being punished for anything that was difficult to avoid. One of them used to walk about spreading malicious gossip (nameemah), and the other used not to take precautions to avoid getting urine on himself when he urinated.” Then he called for a green branch, which he split in two and planted a piece on each grave, and said, “May their torment(severe physical or mental suffering) be reduced so long as these do not dry out.” [al-Bukhaari, Muslim]

For a person to say of another, “He cannot control his tongue (or he has a loose tongue)” is undoubtedly one of those things that a person would dislike to have said about him. If it is true, then it is gheebah (backbiting), and if it is not true then it is buhtan (slander).

Everyone who does any kind of backbiting, slander or malicious gossip has to repent and pray for forgiveness, and that is between him and Allaah.

If he knows that any of his words reached the person about whom he was speaking, then he should go to him and ask him to forgive him. But if he does not know, then he should not tell him; rather he should pray for forgiveness for him and make du’a(supplication) for him, and speak well of him in his absence just as he spoke against him. Similarly, if he knows that telling him will provoke more enmity, then it is sufficient to make du’a for him, speak well of him and pray for forgiveness for him.

It was narrated that Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “Whoever has wronged his brother with regard to his honour or anything else, let him seek his forgiveness today, before there will be no dinar and no dirham, and if he has any good deeds to his credit they will be taken from him in a manner commensurate with the wrong he did, and if he has no good deeds, then some of his counterpart’s bad deeds will be taken and added to his burden.” [al-Bukhaari].

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah said:
Whoever wrongs a person by slandering him, backbiting about him or insulting him, then repents, Allah will accept his repentance, but if the one who was wronged finds out about that, he has the right to settle the score. But if he slandered him or backbit about him and the person did not hear of that, then there are two views according to the scholars, both of which were narrated from Ahmad, the more correct of which is that he should not tell him that he spoke against him in his absence. It was said that he should rather speak well of him in his absence just as he spoke badly of him in his absence, as al-Hasan al-Basri said: the expiation for gheebah is to pray for forgiveness for the person about whom you backbit. Majmoo’ al-Fataawa.

And Allah knows best.