Does Backbiting Count for Non-Muslims as Well?

Answered by Mawlana Ilyas Patel

Question

I have quite a few questions about backbiting.

Unfortunately, this habit is ingrained in some close to me (usually happening in situations where I am going to keep ties) and when I try to remind them, I am ignored. 

1. If it were to happen at dinner tables, would I need to get up and leave?
2. Are you sinful for someone else backbiting if you do nothing to stop it? 
3. If it is sinful to listen to others backbiting, would reading something where someone is backbiting another (like a Tiktok, Youtube, or Instagram comment or maybe even the news) count as well?
4. Would I need to message the person who made the comment (publicly or privately)? 
5. Does backbiting count for non-Muslims as well?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate

I pray you are well.

1-2.  Just as slander is unlawful for the one who says it, it is unlawful for the one listening to it. It is obligatory whenever one hears someone begin to backbite another tell him to stop if it does not entail manifest harm to one.

If it does, then one is obliged to condemn it in one’s heart and to leave the company, if one is able, in your case, you should leave the table. When the person who hears it, is able to condemn it in words or change the subject, then he must. It is a sin for him not to.

But if the hearer tells the backbiter to be silent while desiring him in his heart to continue, this, as Imam Ghazali (Allah have mercy on him) notes, is hypocrisy that does not lift the sin from him, for one must dislike it in one’s heart.

[Nawawi, Al-Adhkar; Nahlawi, Al-Durar al-Mubaha]

3. Yes it will count, reading comments about someone on any social media platform, too.

4. You don’t need to message him privately, or publicly. However, if you know the person, and it will not manifest harm to one, and the other person will listen.

5. Can a Muslim Backbite Non-Muslims? – SeekersGuidance

Linked answers

backbiting Archives – SeekersGuidance

May Allah (Most High) safeguard our tongues from all kinds of sins and speak or listen to what is only benefit to us or others, amin! 

I pray this helps in your question.

[Mawlana] Ilyas Patel
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Mawlana Ilyas Patel is a traditionally-trained scholar who has studied within UK, India, Pakistan, Syria, Jordan and Turkey.

He started his early education in UK. He went onto complete hifz of Qur’an in India, then enrolled into an Islamic seminary in UK where he studied the secular and Alimiyyah sciences. He then travelled to Karachi, Pakistan.

He has been an Imam in Rep of Ireland for a number of years. He has taught hifz of the Qur’an, Tajwid, Fiqh and many other Islamic sciences to both children and adults onsite and online extensively in UK and Ireland. He was teaching at a local Islamic seminary for 12 years in the UK where he was a librarian and a teacher of Islamic sciences.

He currently resides in UK with his wife. His personal interest is love of books and gardening.