A neighbor who abandons prayer lives in our house; are we permitted to remove her, and does mentioning her circumstances count as backbiting?
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Question:
May Allah reward you with good and do you good. Our sister from Yemen has other issues, as I mentioned earlier. She says that in another case she has, they have a neighbor who lives in her house, and she describes her as one who abandons prayer and is also very argumentative when advised. She asks: Is it permissible for her to remain in our home given the state you described? How should we treat her if she stays? Is it permissible to mention her bad deeds? Or is this backbiting and talebearing? I ask for advice.[Al-Ma'idah 5:4] May Allah reward you with good.
Answer:
The obligatory course is to make things right, offer advice, enjoin good, and forbid evil. It is not permissible to remain silent about this woman who does not pray and does not observe the obligations of Allah. It is not permissible to sit with her or mix with her except with advice, disapproval, enjoining good, and forbidding evil, if her reform and uprightness are expected. However, if she persists and does not accept the advice, it is obligatory to distance oneself from her and remove her from the house so that she does not corrupt the women and children within it who take her as an example. It is obligatory to distance oneself from her if advice has no effect on her and does not influence her, and to avoid sitting with her, mixing with her, and remaining silent about her, because this amounts to approving of evil, and because her presence and sitting with her have an impact on those who mix with her and sit with her.
As for whether it is permissible to speak about this woman, meaning while she is absent: if there is a benefit in speaking with those who can influence her and advising her, then that is a good thing and there is no objection to it. But if it is for no benefit, then it is not permissible to speak about an absent person in a way that displeases them.
May Allah reward you with good and do you good. Our sister from Yemen has other issues, as I mentioned earlier. She says that in another case she has, they have a neighbor who lives in her house, and she describes her as one who abandons prayer and is also very argumentative when advised. She asks: Is it permissible for her to remain in our home given the state you described? How should we treat her if she stays? Is it permissible to mention her bad deeds? Or is this backbiting and talebearing? I ask for advice.
as Allah has taught you
مِمَّا عَلَّمَكُمُ اللَّهُAnswer:
The obligatory course is to make things right, offer advice, enjoin good, and forbid evil. It is not permissible to remain silent about this woman who does not pray and does not observe the obligations of Allah. It is not permissible to sit with her or mix with her except with advice, disapproval, enjoining good, and forbidding evil, if her reform and uprightness are expected. However, if she persists and does not accept the advice, it is obligatory to distance oneself from her and remove her from the house so that she does not corrupt the women and children within it who take her as an example. It is obligatory to distance oneself from her if advice has no effect on her and does not influence her, and to avoid sitting with her, mixing with her, and remaining silent about her, because this amounts to approving of evil, and because her presence and sitting with her have an impact on those who mix with her and sit with her.
As for whether it is permissible to speak about this woman, meaning while she is absent: if there is a benefit in speaking with those who can influence her and advising her, then that is a good thing and there is no objection to it. But if it is for no benefit, then it is not permissible to speak about an absent person in a way that displeases them.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، جارة تاركة للصلاة تسكن في بيتنا، هل لنا أن نخرجها، وهل ذكر أحوالها يعد من الغيبة؟ الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.
