As I was making my way to deliver the Friday sermon my attention was drawn to an advert on the underground publicising a mobile phone package. I won’t disclose which mobile company it was, but the advert was very telling of the current condition of the society we live in. It read, ‘Freedom to gossip, text, chat etc. The package is offering its subscribers cheap and free unlimited text to other people who subscribe to the same package.
From this and other frivolous activities we can conclude that society or the culture of a Godless and secular society makes it very appealing and easy for individuals to commit such deeds.
Allah says, “O you who believe, aviod much suspicion. Indeed some suspicions are sins. And do not spy, nor backbite one another. Would one of you like that he eats the flesh of his dead brother? You would abhor it. And fear Allah. Indeed Allah is Most-Relenting, Most-Merciful’’. (49:12)
Backbiting and gossiping are among the vilest of deeds known to man and are, unfortunately, very prevalent amongst people today – only few people are safe from them. Allah compares backbiting with the consumption of dead meat. The deceased does not know of the consumption of his flesh, similarly the living does not know whether someone is backbiting him. In this blessed and auspicious month of Ramadan, Muslims are urged, more fervently than any other time, to avoid any bad talk lest their fast is weakened by it.
The Prophet is reported to have said, “Whoever does not give up forged speech and evil actions, Allah is not in need of his leaving his food and drink” (Ibn Majah). The hadith indicates that those who persist in this deed during the days of fasting their fast may not or will not be accepted by Allah, jallah thana ‘uh.
The hadith narrated by Imam Ahmed in his Musnad regarding the state of the two women who were on the verge of death and whom the companions pleaded to the Prophet on their behalf to break the fast and his, refusal and the reason given by the Prophet further reminds us of the severity and evil results of backbiting.
The evil consequences of backbiting are such that not only does it destroy the individual committing it but it also destroys the very fabric of the society. Slowly but surely people begin to harbour enmity and hatred for one another completely eliminating the tranquillity and equilibrium of a healthy society.
Islam is a complete way of life. It came to honour human being as God’s finest and most revered creatures in this universe. Therefore God in His sublime wisdom prescribed rulings to benefit people, both individually and collectively, and for that reason we find that the injunctions of the Shari’ah are all conducive to that maqsad (objective). Hence we read the divine text’s unequivocal prohibition of backbiting, gossiping and scandal mongering.
Unfortunately, we live in a time where the very day to day function of many aspect of society is predicated upon elevating these evil and debased actions. There are some who even make a living out of gossiping and backbiting. There are many who write columns on newspapers about people’s private lives, who gossip about other people’s problems, and others who blog about what may or may not have happened to that person or that group. For some gossiping, backbiting and scandal-mongering has become their habit. Others have become so immune to the evils and harms that backbiting and gossiping carry, they even find joy in indulging in circles of gossip and backbiting.
There is no notion of taqwa or accountability in the hereafter. Although, in Islam, backbiting and gossiping have no worldly punishment however, persistent perpetrators will receive a painful punishment in the hereafter if they do not repent sincerely before their departure from this life.
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