Is it backbiting to mention a person's faults without mentioning his name?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The Shaykh : Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions.
The questioner : As for what follows, the questioner says: Honorable Shaykh! If a person speaks about another person without mentioning his name, pointing out some of his faults, is this considered forbidden backbiting?
The Shaykh : Yes, if the fault he spoke about has become widespread and it is well known that it belongs to so-and-so, then this is backbiting. Because the one who hears will direct his mind to whom? To so-and-so, so it is as if he identified him by name. But if it is not known and not widespread, and you said, for example, some people cheat in selling, some people cheat in buying, some people drink intoxicants, some people steal, then there is no harm. Yes.
The questioner : As for what follows, the questioner says: Honorable Shaykh! If a person speaks about another person without mentioning his name, pointing out some of his faults, is this considered forbidden backbiting?
The Shaykh : Yes, if the fault he spoke about has become widespread and it is well known that it belongs to so-and-so, then this is backbiting. Because the one who hears will direct his mind to whom? To so-and-so, so it is as if he identified him by name. But if it is not known and not widespread, and you said, for example, some people cheat in selling, some people cheat in buying, some people drink intoxicants, some people steal, then there is no harm. Yes.
Source
قناة «فضيلة الشيخ محمد بن صالح العثيمين»، لقاء[3 من 49] هل من الغيبة ذكرعيوب شخص بدون ذكر اسمه؟!! الشيخ ابن عثيمين - مشروع كبار العلماء — youtube.com (0:08)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.