When Backbiting is Permitted

Most of us know, based on the Hadith of the Prophet ﷺ that backbiting is a major sin in Islam. The character and etiquette of a Muslim is such that he strives to perfect his personality based on the example of the Messenger ﷺ. The evil of this sin causes rancor and distrust between the hearts of the believers. Small societies and groups like ours are greatly affected by this sin because of the size of the community and people’s familiarity with one another.

One of the things regarding speech that requires us to have a deeper understanding of are the cases in which speaking badly about someone becomes permissible.

A poet listed these by saying:

“Criticizing is not gheebah in six (cases) – complaining, identifying, warning, When the person is committing evil openly, when advice is sought, and when one is asking for help in removing an evil.”

The scholars have further commented on this and have listed the cases where speaking about a person in a negative way becomes permissible.

• Complaining: If a person is wronged, they are allowed to complain about the one who harmed them to a judge or person in authority such as the imam of the community.
• Seeking help to change an evil by telling someone who is able to speak to the wrong doer in order for him to quit his bad deed.
• Seeking advice for a religious ruling from a person of knowledge by telling him of the case of someone who wronged him in order to get advice from the scholar about his case.
• Warning the Muslims and giving sincere advice about a person’s evil in order to alert them to his harms such as an innovator, thief or fornicator.
• Speaking about the one who openly commits forbidden acts.
• Mentioning a person by a fault which he has such as “The one handed one” as a means of identifying the person.

It is important for us to have knowledge regarding these exceptions to the rule of backbiting because individuals have fallen into harm in the past by refraining from saying what was known to them about an individual’s evil for fear of falling into backbiting. This has led to the rights of others being violated by getting involved with harmful individuals by way of marriage, trade and friendship. We ask Allah to give us understanding of His dean!