How to Repent from Backbiting and Talebearing

Question:
May Allah reward you. Honorable Shaykh, yes, we have another caller connected. Please, go ahead. Peace be upon you. And upon you peace, Muhammad. Please, go ahead. How are you, Shaykh? May Allah welcome you. Turn the television down a little, Muhammad. Turn the television down; it is distracting us. Please, please, Muhammad. I say, may you live long, Shaykh. Backbiting and talebearing are very common among people these days. How can a person repent while he has been practicing it, may Allah protect us from it, meaning for most of his life? How can a person repent from it? Very well.

Answer:
Yes, backbiting, my brother, is an injustice to the one you backbited. So you must repent from it, and you must seek forgiveness from the one you backbited, unless it is difficult for you to ask him for that. In that case, you make du'a for him and praise him more than you backbited him. As for talebearing, you must repent from it, because it is corruption among people. So you must repent and abandon it and leave it. Yes.