Chapter: "Chapter on Stinginess." Explanation of the hadith of Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him)

The Shaykh : We are now entering a new chapter from the chapters of *Al-Adab al-Mufrad* by Imam al-Bukhari.
And it is his saying: "Chapter on Stinginess".
He also narrates it with his authentic chain of transmission.
From Jabir, who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: .
A tribe from among the Arab tribes, the Banu Salmah. The people of this tribe, or some of them, asked: Who is your chief? Who is your leader? Who is the highest among you?
We said: "Jud ibn Qays". Jud is an Arabic name. They said: This is our leader, Jud ibn Qays. But the group were Arabs and Muslims, and they are truthful in what they say. So after they mentioned that their leader was so-and-so, they followed that by saying: "though we find him stingy". They mentioned a defect in him: "though we find him stingy": meaning we find him stingy, even though he is our leader. The expectation for a leader is that he be noble and generous, but he is the opposite of that. "though we find him stingy". The Messenger responded to them by saying: . Its original form is: "a more severe disease" .
In this hadith, there are in fact benefits, the most important of which is: The mention by the Banu Salmah to the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), in the absence of Jud ibn Qays, their leader, that he was stingy. Here is a jurisprudential benefit: It is permissible to backbite a man if a Sharia benefit follows from it. This is the backbiting of the people of Banu Salmah to the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) when he asked them about their leader and chief: "So-and-so, though we find him stingy." That is, their description of him as stingy. This is backbiting, because you all know that backbiting...
-Drink with your right hand, and do not drink with the left. Teach your children Islamic etiquette-
So the saying of the one who says "we find him stingy," meaning we find him stingy, is backbiting. Because backbiting, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the authentic hadith: . And each of us, when he mentions what is in a person of bad character, it is backbiting without doubt. If I say: Zayd is a stingy person, he would dislike it, even if he knows from himself that he is stingy. If I say: So-and-so is angry, and he is actually angry, but this is something he dislikes. And so on. It is all backbiting, because the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) says: . The questioner said: The questioner was assuming that mentioning a person with what is in him is without harm. So when the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) mentioned that there is all the harm in it, he said: Then if I did not mention what is in him, would there be no harm? He said: . A lie is a greater sin and greater.
So: If backbiting is mentioning your brother with what he dislikes, how did the people of Banu Salmah describe their leader and chief in the presence of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) as stingy, and the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) approved them of that and did not say to them: What are you doing? Why are you backbiting him? As some of the scrupulous, or even some of the overly strict, do. When an occasion arises to describe a man with a bad character in him, as a warning to people, a scrupulous or overly strict person would stand up and say: My brother, we do not want to backbite people.
We must know the detailed ruling on backbiting, and this hadith gives us an example of this detail.
The original ruling is that backbiting is forbidden, and its criterion is: That the one who backbites has no religious benefit when he backbites the one who is backbitten, but rather it is for the sake of spreading a character trait, or for entertainment, or for idle talk, or something else. All of this is forbidden backbiting. But if the backbiting is not intended for the sake of relieving oneself, but rather an Islamic benefit is intended by it, then this is permissible backbiting. And this, of course, varies in many forms. Some scholars collected them in a verse of poetry, saying:
"Criticism is not backbiting in six cases: *** The wronged, the one informing, and the one warning
And the one openly committing open sin, and the one seeking a ruling, and the one *** Seeking help in removing a wrong"
Six things, and each of these traits contains many branches. But the summary of these six traits is what was permitted and excepted from forbidden backbiting. So the scholar-poet said:
"Criticism is not backbiting in six cases"
The first is: "The wronged": The wronged, meaning the one who has been wronged. The wronged person has the right to say: So-and-so wronged me. Why? Because he did all the possible means to reach his right from that wrongdoer, but he did not succeed and did not achieve it. Nothing remained but to publicize it among the people, perhaps he will feel a little and present the right to this wronged person. And for that reason, the Messenger (may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him) explicitly stated this ruling and this permissibility, saying: .
. The delay, as in the other hadith: . And the one who has the means is the rich one. . That is, the delay of the one who has the means, i.e., the rich one who finds what suffices for the right, is considered by the wise Lawgiver as injustice. So he (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the previous hadith: . His honor is made lawful. The intended meaning is that it is lawful to attack him and criticize him. But it is not said, for example, "So-and-so is a liar" if he is known to be truthful. So he speaks with honesty, criticizing his honor specifically regarding what concerns this wronged person. Only this is the meaning of . Who punishes him? The Muslim ruler. The Muslim ruler has the right to summon the wrongdoer who refuses to perform the right that is due to this wronged person, and punish him by flogging him fifteen times, as he sees fit for his discipline, so that he does not return to encroaching on the rights of people again. So this hadith is explicit in permitting the backbiting of the wrongdoer. "The one who has the means, his honor is made lawful": meaning criticizing him and punishing him. So the first trait of what is excepted from forbidden backbiting is the wronged person.
The one who complains of his injustice: meaning he complains of his injustice to the people, saying: So-and-so wronged me. And this ruling is not only in the hadith, but also in the Noble Qur'an, where Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) said: . It is permissible for the one who has been wronged to speak openly of the bad things regarding the one who wronged him. This is the first type excepted from forbidden backbiting: the one who complains of his injustice.
"And the one informing": This is an example before us now from the many examples. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) asked some of the Companions from Banu Salmah: . They said: "Jud ibn Qays". He was asking them to inform him, so they answered by informing him (peace and blessings be upon him), saying: "though we find him stingy".
And clearer than this example: When a woman came and two men had proposed to her. She came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said: O Messenger of Allah, so-and-so and so-and-so have proposed to me. She said: Abu Jahm with a meem, not Abu Jahl with a lam. Abu Jahm was from the Companions, and Mu'awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan. Each of them proposed to me. So it was as if she was saying: I am confused, should I agree to this one or this one? And as if she was saying: Advise me, O Messenger of Allah, should I agree to this one or this one? The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) did not say to her: Take this one, or take that one, because the matter is sensitive; women's intentions and goals are different. So what the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) did was nothing but to describe each of the two suitors to the woman to whom each had proposed. Therefore, he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . So we find here that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) criticized both suitors for that woman so that she would be fully informed.