Explanation of the Spiritual Fast-Breakers: Lying and Backbiting

Question:
It is obligatory to avoid lying and backbiting.

Answer:
These are the spiritual fast-breakers, the spiritual fast-breakers that diminish the reward of the fasting person or destroy it, but for which making up the fast is not required. They are lying. Lying is forbidden; it is not permissible for a fasting person to lie. Lying is absolutely forbidden in every state, but it is more strictly forbidden for the fasting person because it affects the reward of fasting and breaks the fast. Lying breaks the fast. Backbiting is absolutely forbidden, but it is more severe regarding the fasting person because it diminishes the reward of the fasting person or destroys it. It is speaking about the faults of people. Backbiting is speaking about the faults of people with what they dislike of their faults, such as saying so-and-so is stingy, so-and-so is a liar, so-and-so is such-and-such. It is not permissible. Or saying so-and-so has a defect. Backbiting may be by speech, meaning listing the faults of the absent person, and backbiting may also be by action, such as imitating him, which is called acting or mimicking. A person imitates him out of mockery, imitating his walk, his speech, or his actions out of mockery and jesting with him. This is backbiting by action. Or if he passes by, he pokes him with his hand, points to him with a gesture of disparagement, or points with his lip, stretching his lip in mockery of him, or with his eye, winking at him out of disparagement. This is backbiting by action. This is absolutely forbidden, whether it is by speech or by action.
Allah the Exalted said: Allah the Exalted said, and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: meaning you lied about him. So backbiting is not permissible because of the disparagement of people and the encroachment on their honor. The honor of Muslims is forbidden to be violated, just like their wealth and their blood. Backbiting is not permissible except in the case of grievance. In the case of grievance, a person goes to complain and says so-and-so lied to me, so-and-so betrayed me, so-and-so delayed my right, in order for the right of the oppressed to be taken. There is no harm in this. So Hind (may Allah be pleased with her) said: , what she said to him was not in the category of backbiting, but rather in the category of seeking her right. It is permissible to complain to the judge and the ruler, and to mention the faults of the opponent in order to reach one’s right. Likewise, in consultation, if a person consults you about a person to partner with him or to marry him, is he suitable or not? You clarify the defects you know about him, that this is in the category of advice, and not in the category of backbiting. In the category of advice, and not in the category of backbiting.
In the category of hisbah (supervision) and enjoining good and forbidding evil, it is to report about a person that he does not pray, that he commits sins, that he drinks intoxicants, that he is reported to the people of hisbah in order to take action against him, and this is not in the category of backbiting, but rather in the category of forbidding evil. So in these matters, backbiting is permissible to the extent of the need, and as for what is beyond that, backbiting is forbidden. And in Ramadan, in the state of fasting, it is more strictly forbidden, and it diminishes the reward of the fasting person or destroys it completely. Likewise, cursing, cursing and insulting, and false speech is absolutely forbidden, and regarding the fasting person it is even more so; because this diminishes the reward of his fasting, or destroys it. His saying (peace and blessings be upon him), his saying (peace and blessings be upon him), if someone fights him or insults him, let him say: I am fasting, meaning and do not...