“There is no backbiting in the Case of an Evildoer”

Question

Praise be to Allah.

Gheebah is haram (impermissible) and
emphatically so, because Allah says (interpretation of the meaning):

“…neither backbite one another. Would one
of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother?”

[49:12].

And it is proven from Anas (may Allah be
pleased with him) that the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon
him) said: “When I was taken up into heaven, I was taken past some people
who had nails of copper with which they were scratching their faces and
chests. I said: Who are these, O Jibreel? He said: These are the ones who
ate the flesh of the people and impugned their honour.” [Imam Ahmad and Abu
Dawood] The Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) defined
gheebah as saying about your brother that which he dislikes.

It is permissible in a few cases which are
indicated by shar’i (legal) evidence when there is a need for that, such as
if someone consults you with regard to marriage or business partnership, or
if someone complains to the ruler and asks him to put a stop to a person’s
wrongdoing. In that case there is nothing wrong with saying about him things
that he dislikes for the purpose of serving an obvious interest. One of them
compiled a list of the cases in which gheebah is permissible in two lines of
verse in which he said:

Criticism is not gheebah in six cases:
complaining about mistreatment, identifying a person, warning about a
person, highlighting evildoing, seeking a fatwa/verdict, and seeking help to
remove an evil.

But if there is no obvious interest to be
served by mentioning him in a way that he dislikes, then it comes under the
heading of gheebah which is haram.

With regard to the question about the
phrase “There is no gheebah (backbiting) in the case of a faasiq (evildoer)”
and whether it is a hadeeth or not, Imam Ahmad said it is munkar (basically
rejected). Al-Haakim, al-Daaraqutni and al-Khateeb said: it is false.

But the fact that there is no gheebah in
the case of a faasiq (an evildoer who openly commits sins) is indicated by
the proven report which says that the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah
be upon him) saw a funeral passing by, and those who were with him spoke ill
of the deceased person, and he (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him)
said: “It is due.” Then another funeral passed by, and they spoke well of
the deceased person, and the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon
him) said: “It is due.” They asked him what he had meant by saying it is
due, and he said: “The one of whom you spoke ill, Hell is his due, and the
one of whom you spoke well, Paradise is his due. You are the witnesses of
Allah on His earth.” and he did not rebuke them for speaking ill of the
deceased person of whose evildoing they were aware. This indicates that if a
person commits evil openly, there is no gheebah in his case.

And Allah is the source of strength. May
Allah send blessings and peace upon our Prophet Muhammad and his family and
companions. End quote.