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BACKBITING
In
His Name. There is nothing that
does not glorify Him with praise.
The
Qur’anic verse, Would any of you
like to eat the flesh of his dead
brother? (49:12) which induces in
the heart an aversion to backbiting in
six miraculous ways, shows how
disgusting a thing backbiting is in the
view of the Qur’an, and therefore
leaves no room for further explanation
on the subject. Indeed, there is no
need, nor any possibility, for further
explanation where the Qur’an has made
so decisive a proclamation.
The
Qur’anic verse quoted above reprimands
the backbiter with six degrees of
reprimand and restrains him from this
sin with six degrees of severity. When
the verse is read as addressed to those
actually engaged in backbiting, its
meaning is as follows:
The
hamza at the beginning of the
sentence in its original Arabic is
interrogative. This sense of
interrogation penetrates all the words
of the verse like water, so that each
word carries an interrogative accent.
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Thus,
the first word asks, following the hamza,
‘Do you have no intelligence, with
which you ask and answer, and can
discriminate between good and bad,
so that you fail to perceive how
abominable this thing is?’
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The
second word, like, asks, ‘Is it
that your heart, with which you love
or hate, is so spoiled that you love
a most repugnant thing like
backbiting?’
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Third,
the phrase, any of you, asks, ‘What
has happened to your sense of the
nature and responsibility of society
and civilization that you dare to
accept something so poisonous to
social life?’
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Fourth,
the phrase, to eat the flesh, asks,
‘What has happened to your sense
of humanity that you are tearing
your friend to pieces with your
teeth like a wild animal?’
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Fifth,
the phrase, of his brother, asks,
‘Do you have no human tenderness,
no sense of kinship, that you sink
your teeth into some innocent person
to whom you are tied by numerous
links of brotherhood? Do you have no
intelligence that you bite into your
own limbs with your teeth, in such a
senseless fashion?’
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Sixth,
the word, dead, asks, ‘Where is
your conscience? Is your nature so
corrupt that you commit so
disgusting an act as eating the
flesh of your dead brother who is
deserving of much respect?’
According,
then, to the total meaning of the verse
and the indications of each of its
words, slander and backbiting are
repugnant to the intelligence, and the
heart, to humanity and conscience, to
human nature and religious and societal
brother-hood. You see, then, that the
verse condemns backbiting in six degrees
in a very concise and most precise
manner and restrains men from it in six
miraculous ways.
Backbiting
is a shameful weapon and most commonly
used by people of enmity, envy and
obstinacy; no self-respecting, honorable
man will ever demean himself by
resorting to such a vile weapon. Some
celebrated person once said:
I
hold myself in so great esteem as
not to punish (my enemy) with
backbiting,
For
backbiting is the weapon of the
weak and the low.
Backbiting
consists in speaking about an absent
person in a way that would repel and
annoy him if he were to be present and
hear. If the words uttered are true,
that is backbiting; if they are not,
this is both backbiting and slander and,
therefore, a doubly loathsome sin.
Backbiting
can be permissible in a very few,
particular circumstances:
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A
wronged man can present a formal
complaint to some officer, so that
with his help, a wrong may be
righted and justice restored.
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If
a man contemplating co-operation
with another comes to hold counsel
with you, and you say to him,
disinterestedly and purely for the
sake of his benefit, and in order to
counsel him properly, without any
further motive, ‘Do not co-operate
with him; it will be to your
disadvantage.’
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If
a man says only by way of factual
description, not to expose to
disgrace or notoriety, ‘That
crippled, foolish man went to such
and such a place.’
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If
the man being criticized is an open
and unashamed sinner; that is, far
from being ashamed of it, he takes
pride in the sins he commits; if he
takes pleasure in his wrongdoing and
commits sins openly.
In
these particular cases, backbiting may
be permissible, provided it is done
disinterestedly and purely for the sake
of truth and in the collective interest.
Otherwise, backbiting is like a fire
that consumes good deeds in the manner
of a flame eating up wood.
If
one has engaged in backbiting or
listened to it willingly, one should
seek God’s forgiveness, saying, ‘O
God, forgive me and the one whom I
backbit’, and when he meets the person
about whom he spoke ill, he should say
to him: ‘Forgive me!’
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