_Imām Ibn Qudāmah Al-Maqdisi -rahimahullāh-_
Said:
Know verily – may the blessing of Allāh be upon you – that, anything that one may say concerning one’s brother which he dislikes is considered as backbiting, and it be with a word, illusion, writing etc.
The worst of the backbiting is for one to backbite one’s brother by indirect illusions this is because it combines praising oneself and at the same backbiting him.
The example of such statement is for one to say: praise be to Allāh that one is not a miser nor arrogant. But in one’s mind, one is just trying to backbite one’s brother of miserliness and arrogance, however, one placed it in the form of a dua as a pretext. Hence, this type of backbiting is the worst because one is praising oneself and the same time backbiting others.
And another example is for a person to say ” so so and so so miskīn is been tried with much calamities, may Allāh forgive us all. In this statement, the person shows that he makes dua, but in reality, he his intention was to backbite his brother of such calamities.
And know that, whenever people are backbiting others, one should beware of listening to them, if not, one has also shared in the sin. Thus, one should make inkār on them either by stopping them, or changing the topic of discussion or leaving the place immediately if one cannot make inkār due to fear or other reasons.
In this regard, ‘Umar Ibn ‘Utbah was reported to have said to a man:
_Safeguard your two ears from listening to backbiting the way you will guard your tongue from backbiting, for the one who listens to backbiting is like the one speaks about it._
Hence, one should beware of backbiting and listening to it.
*18th Jumādā Al-ūlā, 1438H.*
Allāhu A’alam! Bārakallāhu fīkum!
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