The Evils of Backbiting (Part 5)

The Evils of Backbiting (Part 5) (Reminder)
-Sheikh Muhammad Ismâ`îl al-Sayyid Ahmad.

The prohibition of backbiting in Hadeeths.

1. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “Your blood, your property and your honour are sacred to you like the sacredness of this day in this place in this month.” [Sahîh al-Bukhârî (1741) and Sahîh Muslim (1679)]

Ibn al-Mundhîr makes the following observation: “The Prophet (peace be upon him) had prohibited backbiting in his farewell address to his followers, linking its prohibition to the prohibition of transgressing against another’s life or property. Then he emphasized how prohibited it is by declaring its prohibition to be as the sacredness of the sacred land and the sacred month.”

2. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “One of the greatest of the major sins is to stretch out one’s tongue without right against the honor of a Muslim.” [Sunan Abî Dâwûd (4877)]

3. `Â’ishah relates that she said to the Prophet (peace be upon him): “It should tell you enough about Safiyyah that she is short.”

To this he replied: “You have said a word that if it was to be mixed with the water of the sea, it would contaminate it.” [Sunan al-Tirmidhî (2502) and Sunan Abî Dâwûd (4875)]

Al-Mubârakfûrî, in his commentary on this hadîth, writes: “It means that backbiting, if it were something that could be mixed with the water of the sea, it would noticeably contaminate it in spite of the vast and copious amount of water that the sea contains. How then is it going to be when it is mixed with our paltry good deeds?

4. Two Companions once criticized a man who had been punished for committing adultery. The Prophet (peace be upon him) was traveling and he passed by the carcass of a donkey. He said: “Where are those two people? Get down and eat from the flesh of this donkey!”

They said: “O Prophet of Allah! Who would eat this?”

He said: “What the two of you have recently done by defaming the honor of your brother is far worse than eating from this.”
[Sunan Abî Dâwûd (4428)]