Is refuting the one who disagrees with you backbiting?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
This questioner says that some of those who claim to be scholars hold that refuting the one who disagrees with you and pointing out his errors to the people is backbiting. Is this correct? And what is your guidance regarding this?
Answer:
This depends on the intention. If the intention of the one who refutes is to belittle and attack the person, then this is backbiting and is blameworthy, so it is not permissible. But if his intention is to clarify the truth—if his intention is to clarify the truth, and he does not wound the person or target the person, but rather clarifies the truth, clarifying the error and the correct for the people so that they are not deceived by this speech or this statement—then this is in the category of advice, not in the category of backbiting. This is in the category of advice. There is a difference between backbiting and advice. Yes.
This questioner says that some of those who claim to be scholars hold that refuting the one who disagrees with you and pointing out his errors to the people is backbiting. Is this correct? And what is your guidance regarding this?
Answer:
This depends on the intention. If the intention of the one who refutes is to belittle and attack the person, then this is backbiting and is blameworthy, so it is not permissible. But if his intention is to clarify the truth—if his intention is to clarify the truth, and he does not wound the person or target the person, but rather clarifies the truth, clarifying the error and the correct for the people so that they are not deceived by this speech or this statement—then this is in the category of advice, not in the category of backbiting. This is in the category of advice. There is a difference between backbiting and advice. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، هل الرد على المخالف غيبة؟\صالح الفوزان\كبار العلماء — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.