Nabi (Sallallâhu Alayhi Wa Sallam) once asked his Ashab (companions): “Do you know what ghibah (backbiting) is?” They said: “Allah and His Rasul know better.”
He (Sallallâhu Alayhi Wa Sallam) said: “To say that which your fellow brother would dislike.”
They asked, “What if he has what I say about him?” “If he has what you say about him, you will have backbitten. If not, you will have slandered him.”
Jabir Bin Abdullah (Radhiyallâhu Anhu) narrates: when we were in the company of Rasûlullâh (Sallallâhu Alayhi Wa Sallam), a wind blew which brought some bad odour. Rasûlullâh (Sallallâhu Alayhi Wa Sallam) said: “The munafiqs (hypocrites) have backbitten about the Muslims. This is the reason of the bad odour.”
A wise man was asked: “In the time of the Prophet (Sallallâhu Alayhi Wa Sallam), the bad odour of backbiting could be felt whereas today it cannot be. What is the wisdom behind this?” He responded: ‘Today, backbiting increased to such an extent that the noses are filled with such odours and they got used to it.’
This resembles to the situation of people working in a tannery. A person who enters a tannery cannot bear the odour of the skins. However, the tanners do not feel that odour since their noses get used to it. The situation of backbiting today is the same.
It was among the good characters of Salaf Al-Salihin (The righteous predecessors) not to allow people to backbite and give people a chance to do that in order to keep their gatherings free from sins. They would think that one single act of ghibah could spoil or decrease the reward of the Hadith Al-Sharif they have read, the lecture they deliver or the Zikr they conduct.
Rasûlullâh (Sallallâhu Alayhi Wa Sallam) said: “…on the night of Miraj, when I looked at Jahannam, I saw a group of people eating carrion and asked Jibril who those people were. Jibrail (Alayhis Salam) responded: ‘They are those who eat the flesh of people (backbite)…’
Fudhayl Ibn Iyadh (Rahmatullâhi Alayhi) said: “Backbiting is throwing one’s deeds around with a catapult.”
Waqi Bin Jarrah (Rahmatullâhi Alayhi) said: “You can understand how an honourable act it is to refrain from ghibah by looking at how few people are able to do it.”
