2.37. BACK-BITING (to be continued)

God says

O you who believe! Avoid most guesswork [about one another] – for, behold, some of [such] guesswork is [in itself] a sin; and do not spy upon one another, nor speak ill of each other behind their backs:* would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? Nay you would loathe it! -- Q.49:12
* I.e., “Backbiting”

Furthermore, defer not to the contemptible swearer of oaths, [or to] the slanderer that goes about with defaming tales, -- Q.68:10,11

Woe unto every scandal-monger and fault-finder!* -- Q.104:1
* I.e., everyone who maliciously tries to uncover real or imaginary faults in others.

Prophet said

4. “To backbite a Muslim is transgression”– H: Bukhari and Muslim. N: Ibn Masud.

5. “When a servant (of God) recognizes his sin and then repents, God accepts his repentance.” – H: Bukhari and Muslim. N: Bibi Ayesha.


6. “The fornicator repents, but there is no repentance* for a backbiter ” -- H: Baihaqi. N: Anas.
*I.e., will not be accepted

7. Narrated Huzaifah that he heard the Prophet saying “A Qattar* will not enter paradise”—H:Bukhari
*A person who conveys disagreeable, false information from one person to another with the intention of causing harm and enmity between them.

2.37. BACK-BITING (to be continued)

God says

God does not like any evil to be mentioned in public, except for one who has been wronged [thereby].* -- Q.4:148
*This also implies that evil behavior which affects the society as a whole may be made public if the interest of the wronged party -- in this case the society --as such demanded it.

And as for those who malign believing men and believing women without their having done any wrong – they surely burden themselves with the guilt of slander, and [thus] a flagrant sin! -- Q.33:58

If any iniquitous person comes to you with a [slanderous] tale, use your discernment,* lest you hurt people unwittingly and afterwards be filled
with remorse for what you have done. -- Q.49:6
* I.e., verify the truth before giving credence to any such report or rumour. The tale-bearer is characterized as “iniquitous” because the very act of spreading rumours affecting the reputation of others constitutes a spiritual offence.

Prophet said

1. “Even if what you say about him is in him, still you will be back-biting him; and if it is not in him, you will be slandering him”– H: Muslim. N:Abu Hurairah.

2. “The silent listener of the (back-biting) is one of the back-biters”– H: Tibrani. N: Ibn Omar.

3. “Whoever covers the faults of a brother (i.e., a Muslim), God will cover him on the Day of Resurrection”– H: Bukhari and Muslim. N: Abdullh-b-Omar.

2.36. SPEECH (continued)

God says

… there are ever-watchful forces over you, noble, recording, aware of what you do! Q.82:10-12

(1) Read in the name of thy Sustainer, who has created, (2) created man out of a germ-cell!* (3) Read – for thy Sustainer is the Most Bountiful One who has taught man the use of pen – (4) taught man what he did not know.** – Q.96
*The past tense in which the verb khalaqa appears in these two verses is meant to indicate that the act of divine creation (khalaq) has been and is being continuously repeated. It is also noteworthy that this very first Qura’nic revelation alludes to man’s embryonic evolution out of a “germ-cell”— i.,e, out of a fertilized female ovum – thus contrasting the primitiveness and simplicity of his biological origins with his intellectual and spiritual potential: a contrast that clearly points to the existence of conscious design and purpose underlying the creation of life.
* “The pen” is used here as a symbol for the art of writing or, more specifically, for all knowledge recorded by means of writing: and this explains the symbolic summons “Read!” at the beginning of verses 1 and 3. Man’s unique ability to transmit, by means of written records his thoughts, experiences and insights from individual to individual, from generation to generation, and from cultural environment to another endows all human knowledge with a cumulative character; and since, thanks to this God-given ability, every human being partakes, in one way or another, in mankind’s continuous accumulation of knowledge, man is spoken of as being “taught by God” things which the single individual does not – and, indeed, cannot – know by himself. (This implants in him the will and the ability to acquire knowledge, receives its final accent, as it were, in the next three verses.)
Furthermore, God’s “teaching” man signifies also the act of His revealing, through the prophets, spiritual truths and moral standards which cannot be unequivocally established through human experience and reasoning alone: and, thus, it circumscribes the phenomenon of divine revelation as such.


Prophet said

8. “Even utterance of nice words is charity” -- H: Bukhari and Muslum. N: Abu Hurairah.

Man is very vigilant about every power that could be dangerous. And yet he is so heedless with his own power of speech. The irony is that, in the hereafter, this one could make a difference for him between the heaven and the hell!
On earth too, living could be so much positive and peaceful if speech was controlled. There would be no hurting remarks, no stressing one’s own benevolence injuring feelings of the needy, no hypocrisy, no lies, no false promises, no disclosing of secrets, no misguiding, no vulgar talk or songs, no flattery, no backbiting etc, etc.

2.36. SPEECH (continued)

God says

…And if thou [must] turn aside from those [that are in want, because you yourself are] seeking to obtain your Sustainer’s grace and hoping for it,* at least speak unto them with gentle speech. Q.17:28

*I.e., “because you are yourself in want, and therefore unable to help”.
[Luqman the Wise speaking to his son:] “Hence, be modest in thy bearing, and lower thy voice:…..” Q.31:19

….Give, then, this glad tidings to [those of] My servants who listen [closely] all that is said, and follow the best of it:* [for] it is they whom God has graced with His guidance, and it is they who are [truly] endowed with insight. -- Q.39: 17-18

*In Razi’s words the above verse expresses “a praise and commendation of following the evidence supplied by one’s reason (hujjat-al-‘aql), and of reaching one’s conclusions in accordance with [the results of] critical examination (nazar) and logical inference (istidlal).” A somewhat similar view is advanced, although in simpler terms, by Tabari.

Who could be better of speech than he who calls [his fellow-men] unto God, and
does what is just and right, and says, “Verily, I am of those who have
surrendered to God”? -- Q.41:33

.... But [rather] hold [secret] counsel in the cause of virtue and God-consciousness: and [always] remain conscious of God, unto whom you all shall be gathered. [All other kinds of] secret confabulations are but of Satan’s doing, -- Q. 58:9,10

O you who have attained to faith! Why do you say one thing and do another? Most loathsome is it in the sight of God that you say what you do not do! -- 61: 2, 3

Prophet said

7. ‘Adee bin Hatim (the grandson of the great philanthropist, humanitarian generous and self-sacrificing Hatim Tai who lived before the arrival of the Prophet) related that the Prophet said: “Protect yourself from the fire of hell, even if it be by spending only half a date as alms; and one who does not even get that, should at least speak nicely” – H: Bukhari and Muslum.

2.36. SPEECH (continued)

God says


Are you not aware how God sets forth the parable of a good word?* [It is] like a good tree, firmly rooted, [reaching out] with its branches towards the sky, yielding its fruit at all times by its Sustainer’s permission.
And [thus it is that] God propounds parables unto men, so that they might bethink themselves [of the truth] --Q.14:24,25
*In its wider meaning the term kalimah (“word”) denotes any conceptual statement or proposition. Thus a “good word” circumscribe any proposition (or idea) that is intrinsically true and – because it implies a call that is good in the moral sense – is ultimately beneficent and enduring; and since a call to moral righteousness is the innermost purport of every one of God’s messages, the term “good word” applies to them as well. Similarly the “corrupt word” mentioned in verse 26 applies to the opposite to what a divine message aims at: namely, to every idea that is intrinsically false or moral evil and, therefore, spiritually harmful.

And the parable of a corrupt word is that of a corrupt tree, torn up [from its roots] on to the face of the earth wholly unable to endure.* [Thus,] God grants firmness unto those who have attained to faith through the word that is unshakably true** in the life of this world as well as in the life to come;… Q.14:26,27
*Lit., “having no permanency (qarar) whatever”: i.e., the “corrupt word” (see note for the previous verse 25) is ephemeral in its effect, however strong its original impact on minds of people who fall prey to it.
** Lit., “firm” (sabit). The term qawl – similar to the term kalimah (see note on 24,25) – denote, beyond its primary meaning of “saying” or “utterance”, also anything that can be defined as statement of belief or opinion, namely, “concept”, “tenet”, “assertion of faith”, and so on. In this context it expresses the concept that there is no deity save God, and Muhammad is His Apostle: which is an interpretation of the above phrase given by the Prophet himself, as quoted by Bukhari in a Tradition on the authority of Al-Bara’ ibn ‘Azib (kitab at-Tafsir), and by other Traditionists, including Muslim on the authority of Shu’bah.

The adjective sabit connotes “firmness” – that is the unshakable truth – of the “word” or ““concept” which it qualifies, thus connecting it with the preceding of the “good word” and the “good tree”.


Prophet said

5. “A man who talks out of vain pleasure, to make people laugh, falls deep… for he slips more by his tongue than by his feet.”-- H: Bukhari. N: Abu Hurairah.

6. “When a Muslim calls another Muslim an infidel, one of the two becomes deserving of it”-- H: Bukhari and Muslim. N: Ibn Omar.