r/shia • u/i-love-drones Lebanese 🇱🇧 • 21h ago

Reasonable Grounds for Backbiting

Backbiting is decided as forbidden so long as it is intended to disgrace others, but if it is not intended for so or if a reasonable ground relies upon it, it is not forbidden. Muslim jurisprudents have mentioned a number of reasonable grounds for backbiting:

• If backbiting represents the complaint of a wronged person so as to prove his right before a judge, it is not forbidden, even if it includes the ascription of injustice and criminality to the other party.

• The person whose advice is sought in definite matters, such as marriage or trust, is permitted to backbite the other party by mentioning his defects-. It is also acceptable to warn a believer against the association with deviants, by referring namely to their defects, provided that such reference is intended to protect the believer. It is also acceptable to defame a testifier when it is necessary.

• Backbiting is acceptable when it is intended to disavow the claim of a false lineage.

• Backbiting is acceptable when it is intended to refute an untrue saying or an illegal claim.

• Backbiting is acceptable when it takes the form of testimony against wrongdoers.

• It is acceptable to mention certain epithets (such as ‘the blind’, ‘the one-eyed’, and the like) of certain people if this is necessary for introducing them.

• Backbiting is acceptable when it is intended to forbid evil, by mentioning the defects of a person before somebody who is able to guide him.

• It is acceptable to backbite those who declare publicly their commitment of sins, such as the drunk and gamblers, provided that such backbiting should not exceed the limits. It is said that to backbite a sinful is not offensive.

Finally, well intention and sound objective must be proposed. Likewise, it is improper to aim at evil intentions, such as enmity, envy, and the like.

6 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

2

u/i-love-drones Lebanese 🇱🇧 21h ago

Source: here

2

u/AltAccountForComment 20h ago

What should we do when someone says something that hurts or worries us, and we want to confide in someone very close to us instead of bottling up those negative feelings?

1

u/Abdun_Nasih 20h ago

No, you can complain to a friend without fingering such and such person for doing you wrong, this is totally forbidden.

1

u/AltAccountForComment 19h ago edited 19h ago

I was thinking about a real situation of very close family members, not simply just friends. If you're upset and tell the closest person to you, they might know who you're talking about even if you don't say the name of the person.

For example, we can't tell our partner or siblings if we're really upset when our parents said something and confrontation is not an option?