Straight Path

03. Backbiting

I dedicate this chapter to my aasiiii  aka AASIAkhalif   for her support in this work by  voting and commenting first and also for being a loving & annoying  sister .

السلام عليكم ورحمةالله وبركاته

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم .

     

   HADEES NUMBER - 03     

قال النبي (ﷺ) :   الغيبة اشدّ من الزّ نا .

Kalan nabiyyu (ﷺ) :  Al ghibath ashaddu minaz zina.

Rasool e Kareem (ﷺ) said : Backbiting is most severe than committing adultery.

Narrated by  : Saheed ul Khudri RA
Book             :  Mishkaat
Chapter        :  Hifzul Lisaan .

    

Word to word translation

الغيبة - Backbiting
اشد    -  Most severe
من     -  than
الزّنا    - Adultery

EXPLANATION

WHAT IS GHEEBAT?

In the Hadith Rasulullah (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) is reported to have said: “Backbiting is to mention something of your fellow Muslim brother what he would dislike (that such a thing is being mentioned about him.” Somebody asked: “And what if it is true?” Rasulullah (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) replied: “If it is true you have indulged in gheebat. If it is a lie, you are guilty of slandering him” (Mishkaat). Thus the common retort to justify one’s backbiting such as “what I am saying is true!” will not negate the sin of gheebat. In fact this is gheebat in its totality.

 
Why is it severe  than adultery

A person who commits adultery will be forgiven if he does the things shar 'ia has told him .

Two ways to do Tawbah

1⃣  If he's in a Muslim country.

🔶Hadh of  shar' ia is compulsory on the person .

🔹If the person is married , then the person should be stoned to dead.
🔹If the person is non married , then the person should be whipped 100 times and sent out of the country for one year.

2⃣ If the person is in a non Islamic country.

🔶The person should do tawbathun nasooha ( the real tawba that he'll never repeat the sin again)

But the person who backbite cannot do tawba until he goes to the person about whom he has backbit and say that he has said such and such things about him behind his back and ask for forgiveness from that person .
Allah will not forgive him until he's forgiven by that particular person about whom he has backbit.

Prohibition of listening to backbiting

In the same manner as backbiting is prohibited, so also is listening to it. Indeed, as some traditions indicate, the listener is like the backbiter in all the evil aspects—so much so that his act is a grave sin carrying an obligation to seek forgiveness from the victim.
        Imam al-Sadiq (‘a) narrated from the Noble Messenger (s) who is once said to have forbidden both backbiting and listening to it. Then he (s) said: “Lo, whoever does a favour to his brother by refuting his backbiting upon hearing it in a gathering, God shall save him from a thousand kinds of evils in this world and in the Hereafter. And if he does not do so despite his ability to refute it, on him shall be the burden of one who commits his backbiting seventy times.” [Al-Hurr al-'Amili, Wasa'il al-Shi'ah, vol. 8, hadith no. 16316]

     Among the more subtle forms of backbiting is listening to it with amazement. Such a person expresses his amazement in order to make the backbiter more lively in his descriptions. His amazement encourages the latter in his evil act. For instance, he will say, “Strange” or “Astaghfirullah!”. Or he might say, “I didn't know that!” or “I didn't know he would do such a thing!” These expressions are meant to affirm the backbiter's statements and to encourage him to add something more. These acts are in fact the Devil's artifices. Surely, to affirm backbiting is also backbiting; as is to listen to it, or even to remain silent upon hearing it. [al-Shahid al-Thani's Discourse as quoted in Forty 

THE CURE FOR THIS DISEASE

If someone, God forbid, has been guilty of this ugly act, he or she must purge this vice and nourish the roots of sincerity, unity, and solidarity in his or her heart by following these steps:

     Meditate for a while about the effects of this sin in this world and in the Hereafter. Reflect on the fearsome, frightful forms that will beset you in the grave, in the Barzakh, and on the Day of Resurrection. Heed the words of the Holy Prophet (s) and his household (‘a) for their pearls of wisdom in this regard will overwhelm you. Then weigh a quarter of an hour's pleasantries, gossip, and satisfaction of the imaginative lust against thousands upon thousands of years of adversity or eternal damnation in hell and everlasting painful chastisement!

May Allah save us from this tremendous sin .
Aameen