Backbiting [in Arabic, ghibah] is saying about an absent Muslim what he would dislike to hear, even when what is said is true. It is a sin many tongues fall into lightly, yet the Qur’an likens it to eating the flesh of one’s dead brother, and the scholars count it among the major sins. This page gathers what the books in my library teach about it: what backbiting is, what Allah likens it to, its dangers, what is not counted as backbiting, the duty of the one who hears it, and how a person repents from it.
The passages below come from Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen’s Explanation of Riyad as-Salihin, its chapters on backbiting in Volume 6 and its chapter on repentance in Volume 1, and from Tafsir as-Sa’di on the verse that forbids it. Their words are quoted word for word; everything else is my own summary, and the references at the end show where each passage stands. Backbiting is not the same as tale-carrying [carrying speech between people to stir up trouble], which the same book treats in its own chapter; this page stays with backbiting.
What Backbiting Is
The Prophet ﷺ himself defined the word. In the chapter on the prohibition of backbiting, Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen explains the hadith in which the definition is given, and what the definition covers:
The Prophet (ﷺ) explained backbiting when he (ﷺ) said to his companions: ‘Do you know what backbiting is?’ They replied: ‘Allah and His Messenger know best.’ Then he (ﷺ) said: ‘Backbiting is mentioning something about your brother what he dislikes.’ They asked: ‘O Messenger of Allah! What if what I say about my brother can be found in him? He replied (ﷺ): ‘If he possesses what you said, you have backbitten him but if does not possess it, then you have slandered him.’
The saying of the Prophet (ﷺ) in defining backbiting: “Your mentioning about your brother what he does not like” includes what the person may dislike of physical and religious defects. Therefore, whenever you mention about a person what he dislikes, this is considered as backbiting.
Two points from the same explanation complete the picture, in the paragraphs that follow: what is said to a man’s face is a different sin, and what is said falsely is a heavier one.
You talk about him in his absence; this is why it is called backbiting. However, if this is done in his presence, it will be an insult and affront, not backbiting.
And the saying of the Prophet (ﷺ): ‘If what you said of your brother is right, you have backbitten him. But if it is not true, you have slandered him.’ That is, you have slandered him and also backbitten him.
What Allah Likens It To
The verse that forbids backbiting is Qur’an 49:12, in Surah al-Hujurat. As-Sa’di, in his tafsir [explanation of the Qur’an] of the verse, restates the Prophet’s ﷺ definition and then explains the likeness Allah gives:
And do not backbite one another. Backbiting, as the Prophet (ﷺ) said, means: “…saying about your brother something that he dislikes, even if it is true.” (Muslim)
Then Allah gives an off-putting likeness of backbiting, as He says: Would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? You would surely abhor it. Backbiting him is likened to eating his flesh when he is dead, which is extremely abhorrent and repugnant. So just as you would hate to eat his flesh, especially when he is dead and lifeless, so too you should hate to backbite him and eat his flesh when he is alive.
Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen explains why the likeness fits: the one spoken about is absent, and the absent cannot defend himself.
Someone might say: ‘How does backbiting fit into this example?’ We say this is because the victim of backbite is not available to defend himself. This makes him comparable to a dead person who could not defend himself when you cut his flesh.
Its Dangers
The first danger is the rank of the sin itself. It is not a small slip of the tongue:
Backbiting is one of the major sins which Prayer, charity, fasting and other righteous acts cannot expiate; rather, it will remain on the scale.
As-Sa’di ends his explanation of the verse with the same conclusion: the verse is a stern warning against backbiting, and likening it to eating the flesh of a dead person marks it as a major sin. The second danger is what happens to the backbiter’s own deeds. The Shaykh quotes the hadith of the bankrupt one [the one who arrives on the Day of Resurrection rich in deeds and leaves with nothing]. Its close runs as follows, and the same passage then tells of one of the pious predecessors who, hearing that a man had backbitten him, sent that man a gift with a message:
His good deeds will be taken and given to this-and-that. Such that if his good deeds are exhausted before what is against him is settled, his sins will be taken and will be heaped on him then he will be thrown into the hell (as a result of that).
‘You gave me the gift of your good deeds which I will benefit from on the Day of Resurrection, and I am giving you this gift which you will benefit from in this fleeting world.’
The sin also grows with the harm it spreads. The Shaykh states the rule briefly:
You should understand that the ignominy and sin of backbiting increase in accordance to its consequences. Therefore, backbiting a common man is not comparable to backbiting a scholar, leader, manager, minister or similar figures.
What Is Not Counted as Backbiting
Not every mention of another’s fault is backbiting. The Shaykh separates speaking in order to find fault from speaking in order to counsel and warn:
However, there is nothing wrong in backbiting for the purpose of advice or clarification.
He mentioned what these two people would dislike but it was for the purpose of counseling, not spreading fault and ignominy. He separated the issues.
Likewise, if someone comes to seek your opinion about taking knowledge from a particular person whom you know with distorted methodology, you are not blameworthy if you advise him against that.
The first passage follows the Prophet’s ﷺ own practice, when Fatimah bint Qays asked his counsel about her suitors and he named what each man would have disliked, because she needed the advice. The Shaykh also corrects a saying that circulates widely, that there is no backbiting in the case of an openly sinful person: it is not a hadith, and its meaning is not absolute, since mentioning such a person’s faults in order to blame him is not permissible, while mentioning them by way of admonition and warning is compulsory.
Imam an-Nawawi gathered the cases in which speaking of another’s fault is permitted into six: complaining of oppression to one who can establish the right; seeking help to forbid an evil; seeking a legal verdict, where it is better not to name the person if the question can be asked without it; speaking against one who openly commits disobedience; questioning narrators and witnesses when the need arises, mentioning bad qualities when advice is sought about marriage, and warning a seeker of knowledge about an innovator; and using a nickname a person is known by, for identification only, not to disparage him. Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen confirms the list as it stands:
The author, Imam Nawawi (may Allah shower blessings on him), mentioned this chapter about some instances in which backbiting is permissible and he listed six cases. What he said requires no further comment because they are all correct and precise.
These cases are narrow doors opened for a need, each tied to its purpose. They are not a licence to discuss people’s faults at leisure.
If You Are Present When It Happens
The duty does not rest on the speaker alone. A whole chapter is given to the prohibition of listening to backbiting, and it opens with this hadith:
Abu ad-Darda (may Allah be pleased with him) said: The Prophet (ﷺ) said, “He who defends the honour of his (Muslim) brother, Allah will secure his face against the Fire on the Day of Resurrection.” [At-Tirmidhi]
Explaining the chapter, the Shaykh draws the ruling for the one who sits and hears:
It is derived from this that it is compulsory for anyone who witnesses an act of backbiting to forbid it and strive to rein in the backbiter. This may be by force, if he has the ability to order him to desist immediately and fear Allah, or by admonishing him. Otherwise, he should leave the place. When a person finds himself in a gathering of people who are backbiting good and reputable people, the first obligation is to defend them. If he could not achieve this, it becomes incumbent on him to leave the gathering lest he becomes their partner in sin.
So the one present defends the absent brother and forbids the backbiter, and if neither is possible, he leaves, because staying and listening makes him a partner in the sin.
How to Repent From It
Repentance begins with stopping. In his chapter on repentance, Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen applies the condition of desisting [giving the sin up at once] to this sin by name:
If it is backbiting, he must desist from backbiting people and speaking about their honor.
But backbiting wrongs a person, and a person’s right has to be settled. Here the scholars hold two views, and the Shaykh states the one he holds most preponderant [the stronger of the two views]:
Fourthly: If the right has to do with backbiting; i.e., you had made slanderous comments and defamed him before the people in his absence. The scholars hold different views regarding that: Some hold that you must approach him and say: “O so-and-so, I slandered you publicly; kindly forgive and pardon me.”
Others view that: Do not go to him; it rather requires further explication! If he had known about the backbiting, then you must approach him for pardon. But if not, do not go to him. Seek forgiveness for him and extol his virtues in the same sittings where you defamed him. Good deeds certainly eliminate the evil ones.
This is the most preponderant view; i.e., if the individual wasn’t aware that you had slandered him, it suffices for you to mention his virtues in the same gathering you had slandered him and ask forgiveness for him.
The reason for the distinction is mercy toward the one wronged: if he never knew, telling him would only plant pain in his heart, while seeking forgiveness for him and restoring his name in the very gatherings where it was damaged repairs what can be repaired. If he did know, he must be approached and asked to pardon. The rights, the Shaykh adds, must be returned to their rightful owners.
One sentence inside that passage needs its standing stated plainly. The Shaykh supports seeking forgiveness for the one backbitten with a reported saying, that the expiation [making amends] for backbiting a person is to ask forgiveness for him. The book’s own footnote grades that saying weak: al-Iraqi graded it weak, and al-Albani graded it weak in his collection of weak hadith, no. 1519. The Shaykh’s ruling does not rest on it; it rests on the principle he states, that good deeds eliminate evil ones, and on the duty to return rights to their owners. The path of repentance stands as he ruled it, and that sentence is carried here as what it is, a weak report, not an established formula.
These are the backbiting-specific rulings. The general conditions of repentance are gathered on this site’s page Does Allah Forgive Every Sin?, quoted from the same chapter of the same book, and are not repeated here. The same ruling also stands in summary on Repentance (Tawbah), for the reader who wants the short form beside the general conditions.
References
Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salih al-Uthaymeen, Explanation of Riyad as-Salihin, Vol. 6: Dar-us-Salam edition (The Book of the Prohibited Actions: Chapter 254, printed pp. 131-139; Chapter 255, printed pp. 161 and 166; Chapter 256, printed pp. 166-167).
Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salih al-Uthaymeen, Explanation of Riyad as-Salihin, Vol. 1: Dar-us-Salam, 2016 (the chapter “On Repentance”, printed pp. 84 and 86-87).
Tafsir as-Sa’di, Vol. 9 (Juz 25-27): International Islamic Publishing House (IIPH), English Edition 1, 2018, translated by Nasiruddin al-Khattab (on Qur’an 49:12, printed pp. 258-259).
Further Reading
- Repentance (Tawbah): repentance and its conditions in summary, including the ruling on repenting from backbiting in short form.
- Does Allah Forgive Every Sin?: the five conditions of repentance quoted in full from the same chapter of the same book.
- Why Does a Muslim Conceal His Sins?: concealing one’s own sins and covering the faults of others, the neighbour of guarding the tongue against theirs.
- Surah Al-Humazah: the surah’s warning against the slanderer and backbiter in its own terms, from the summary of Ibn Kathir’s tafsir.
- Manners and Character (Akhlaq): the home page of this article: truthfulness, patience, controlling anger, gentleness, and the rest of the manners gathered there.
Verified on 2026-10-24 against the books listed above.