The Hospitality of the Wrongdoer

 

1.  It is reported from Al-Hasan Al-Basri that a man said to him, “You have gossiped about me.” He (Al-Hasan) said, “You have not reached such a position that you can control my hasanaat!” ¹

2.    Someone was told, “So-and-so has gossiped about you.” So he sent him a dish of dates with the message: “I heard that you had given me your hasanaat as a gift, and I want to return the favour; please excuse me for not being able to pay back in full.”

3.    It is reported from Ibn al-Mubarak (may Allaah have mercy on him) that he said, “If I were to indulge in backbiting about anyone, I would gossip about my parents, for they have more right to my hasanaat.”

4.    Backbiting is the hospitality of the wrongdoer

5.    ‘Amr ibn al-’Aas (radiAllaahu ‘anhu) narrated that he passed by a dead mule and said to some of his companions, “It would be better for a man to eat his fill from the meat of this than from the flesh of his fellow Muslims.” ²

6.    If you are unable to do three things, then you must do three (other) things: if you cannot do good, then stop doing evil; if you cannot benefit people, then do not harm them; if you cannot fast, then do not eat the flesh of other people

7.    A poet said:

If a man is wise and fears Allah, 

This will keep him too busy to concern himself

with the faults of others,

Just as the weak and sick person is too concerned

with his own pain,

To think of the pain of others

Footnotes:

1. Hasanaat: Rewards for good deeds. The Islamic teaching is that the hasanaat of the one who engages in backbiting will be awarded to his/her victim (Translator)

2. This is reported from ‘Amr ibn al-’Aas, Saheeh at-Targheeb wat-Tarheeb

• Transcribed from: Backbiting and Its Adverse Effects | Husayn al-Awayishah 
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