The Ruling on Mentioning the Faults of an Unknown Person to Those Who Do Not Know Him
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
A long question, may Allah preserve you. What is your opinion, may Allah reward you, regarding a person who speaks ill of someone in front of people who do not know him, and says, “It is necessary to speak about him”? Does this count as speaking ill of a person, or is it a form of fulfilling a trust?
Answer:
As for the one who says there is no backbiting of an unknown person: the report states that there is no backbiting of an open sinner. However, regarding an unknown person, one does not backbite. It is not permissible to speak about the honor of his Muslim brother, even if the people present, or some of them, do not know him. Yes.
A long question, may Allah preserve you. What is your opinion, may Allah reward you, regarding a person who speaks ill of someone in front of people who do not know him, and says, “It is necessary to speak about him”? Does this count as speaking ill of a person, or is it a form of fulfilling a trust?
Answer:
As for the one who says there is no backbiting of an unknown person: the report states that there is no backbiting of an open sinner. However, regarding an unknown person, one does not backbite. It is not permissible to speak about the honor of his Muslim brother, even if the people present, or some of them, do not know him. Yes.
Source
شرح العقيدة الواسطية [38] — alfawzan.live (1:10:10)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.