The Hospitality of the Wrongdoer

1. It is reported from Al-Hasan Al-Basri that a man said to him, “You have gossiped about me.” He (Al-Hasan) said, “You have not reached such a position that you can control my hasanaat!” 1
2. Someone was told, “So-and-so has gossiped about you.” So he sent him a dish of dates with the message: “I heard that you had given me your hasanaat as a gift, and I want to return the favour; please excuse me for not being able to pay back in full.”
3. It is reported from Ibn al-Mubarak (may Allah have mercy on him) that he said, “If I were to indulge in backbiting about anyone, I would gossip about my parents, for they have more right to my hasanaat.”
4. Backbiting is the hospitality of the wrongdoer
5. ‘Amr ibn al-‘Aas (radiAllahu ‘anhu) narrated that he passed by a dead mule and said to some of his companions, “It would be better for a man to eat his fill from the meat of this than from the flesh of his fellow Muslims.” 2

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The Many Guises of Backbiting

Shaykhul-Islam, Ibn Taymiyyah rahimahullah, said that there are those from the people that backbite or listen to backbiting, and they do so to please the company they keep, with the awareness that the victim is likely to be innocent of some of the things that are uttered about him. Often such offenders feel that if they were to attempt to end such conversation in a gathering, their presence might become unwelcome or burdensome.

There are many methods and guises that are employed when one mentions another in a negative way. Under the pretense of being informative, one could say that it is not one’s habit to mention others, except for the sake of relating another’s condition to someone. Or one could state that by Allāh, indeed so-and-so is one to be pitied, thereby showing superiority over one who is to be rejected. Another method might be to say that so-and-so is a good person; however, he has such and such qualities. Again, one is justified in revealing another’s faults. One could also simply state that we should forget so-and-so, and make supplication for their forgiveness as well as our own, intending only to belittle the one that was mentioned. In reality, all these tactics are designed to try to deceive Allāh (the Exalted) and to please the creation; in reality, many that follow these methods only serve to deceive themselves.

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Backbiting the Scholars

Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen (rahima-hullaah) mentions:

If backbiting of the layman ranks amongst the major sins, then backbiting of the scholar is much greater. This is because the effects of backbiting of the scholar does not rest at him only, rather it rests upon him and that which he possesses in knowledge of the Sharee’ah.  

From: Kitaabul-‘Ilm | Source: Fatwa-Online

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