Gossips!

This is no pre-Friday sermon or anything of that sort. Just fulfilling my obligation as a Muslim, that's all. To my non-Muslim friends. No offence intended.

Abu Dzar (r.a.) once asked the Prophet  Muhammad (s.a.w.): “O Messenger of Allah, what is ghibah?” . He replied: “It is to mention about your brother that which he detests.”

Abu Dzar (r.a.) said: “O Messenger of Allah, what if that which is mentioned of him should actually be in him?”. He (s.a.w.) replied: “Know that when you mention that which is in him, you have committed his ghibah, and when you mention that which is not in him, then you have slandered him.”  (Muslim)

The general character of ghibah is also understandable from a hadith narrated by Aishah herself.  Aishah says: “A woman came to visit us, and when she turned to go away I made a gesture by my hand that she is short of height. “ Thereupon, he (Prophet Muhammad – s.a.w.) said: ‘You have committed her ghibah.’” (Ibnu Abu Dunya and Ibnu Mirdawaih) 

Hence, it is clear from the hadith that ghibah is not limited to linguistic expression but applies to all kind of communication.

The Prophet (s.a.w.) also said, “Do not expose the mistakes of Muslims. For he who follows (searches for) the errors of his brother, Allah will follow his errors, and whom Allah follows his errors, He will expose him even if he was in the middle of his home.” "(Abu Daud/Sahih Al-Jamee)

In Surah Humaza 104:1, Allah s.w.t. says: “Woe to every backbiter, slanderer”.

The above verse refers to those who sting others with their speech, behaviour, mimicry, or sarcasm at their backs or in front of them. They mock them and defame them with evil motives.

One student asked this question to our lecturer then, “Ustad, how are we to go about curing this disease?”. Our Ustad replied,  “Repent and seek the forgiveness from the victim, if this is possible without any chance of vicious consequences; otherwise, you must implore God's mercy for the victim.”

Pray for his well-being after every Solat? Tall order that!