Chapter: "The Chapter of the Talebearer." Explanation of the Hadith: (Hammam: We were with Hudhayfah when it was said to him that a man was reporting speech to Uthman. Hudhayfah said: I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) say...)

The Shaykh : The chapter that follows is this one.
Chapter: "The Talebearer".
He narrated in it with his authentic chain of narration.
From Hammam: .
We were with Hudhayfah. Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman was a man among the prominent Companions of the Messenger (peace be upon him), and he had a special status with him that no one else shared. That is because he was the keeper of the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) secrets. Among those secrets was that he knew the names of the hypocrites, which no one among the people knew except the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Then Hudhayfah was the keeper of the Messenger's (peace be upon him) secrets, so he knew the names of those hypocrites. Therefore, 'Umar, despite his virtue, and despite what he (peace and blessings be upon him) said about him: , even so, 'Umar would come to Hudhayfah and ask him under oath, and ask him, "Am I mentioned among the names of those hypocrites?" He would then reassure him by saying: No.
This is Hudhayfah. It was said to him that a man was reporting speech to Uthman. This phrase is an Arabic sentence, but a technical term in the science of hadith has been applied to it. From the perspective of Arabic, "reporting speech to Uthman" means he is a talebearer. I think no one is unaware of the meaning of talebearing (namimah), but the "qatatah" intended in the hadith is explained more precisely than the talebearer. It says "he reports speech," meaning he is a talebearer. What does "he is a talebearer" mean? He hears speech from people; he is sitting and hears one person insulting another or criticizing him, whether rightly or wrongly. What this talebearer does is convey this speech to the one who was criticized, with the intention of causing discord between the critic and the criticized. This man was conveying speech to Uthman, meaning he would sit with people and hear what people were saying about Uthman. Perhaps many of you know that in the time of Uthman, many and very many trials occurred, and the consequence of that, unfortunately, was that the people rebelled against him and killed him in his house while he was reciting the Book of Allah. There is no doubt that every trial, when it becomes great, has preliminaries that preceded it, as it is said: "And the fire is nothing but from the sparks that were considered small."
In this atmosphere, in the time of Uthman ibn 'Affan, there was a man who would sit in a gathering, hear so-and-so speaking against Uthman, and then hasten to tell Uthman, "So-and-so said such and such about you," intending to incite Uthman against this person who spoke about him. This is talebearing.
When it was said to Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman that there was a man reporting speech, meaning conveying speech to Uthman in the way of corruption and talebearing, this is the linguistic meaning. But the technical meaning of "reporting speech" is an abbreviation. He said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said. There is a difference between the linguistic meaning and the technical meaning. "Reporting speech" means he is a talebearer. "Reporting speech" means he attributes it to the Messenger (peace be upon him). So when such a phrase comes: "reports speech" in the same context and preceding words indicating that the speaker intends talebearing, the meaning of "reports speech" is that he attributes it to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). But here it is very clear that the intended meaning of his saying: "reports speech to Uthman" is: he conveys the speech he heard from the critic of Uthman to Uthman, with the intention of inciting Uthman against him and causing corruption between them. So Hudhayfah's answer was that he said: I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) say: .
It is well known that the "qatatah" is interpreted as the talebearer, and this means that no talebearer will enter Paradise. But some scholars mentioned a detail regarding talebearing and applied it to one of the aspects. That detail is this word: "the qatatah". If a man sits in a gathering among people openly, hears what was said about so-and-so, and then conveys it, then he is the talebearer. But the one who does not sit with people, but rather eavesdrops from behind the backs of people, who do not know that there is a person spying on them, and hears a word containing criticism of a person, and quickly conveys it to that person who was criticized, with the intention of corruption as well, this is the meaning of the qatatah.
So the qatatah is a talebearer, without doubt, but not every talebearer is a qatatah. That is, from the perspective of the principles of jurisprudence, it has generality and specificity, and so it is in language. Every qatatah is a talebearer, but not every talebearer is a qatatah. Why? Because the talebearer who steals speech from behind walls and conveys the speech to the criticized one meets the talebearer who is in the gathering and conveys speech with the intention of corruption at this point. But the difference between the qatatah and the talebearer is: the talebearer is sitting and not spying, whereas the qatatah spies and conveys speech. We can summarize that the qatatah combines two misfortunes, or two sins: the sin of spying, and Allah the Exalted said: , and many hadiths came regarding that. Then he adds to that by conveying the speech he heard from some of the people sitting in the gathering to the criticized one, with the intention of causing corruption between them. This is the meaning of the qatatah. So every qatatah is a talebearer, but not every talebearer is a qatatah. How does this happen? Every human being is an animal, but not every animal is a human being. This is known in language and terminology. Every human being is an animal because "animal" is a generic name that includes the speaking human and the silent animal, in which the human and the animal are distinguished. So if you say "the human is an animal," you are correct, but you cannot say "every animal is a human." Similarly, if you say "the qatatah is a talebearer," it is correct because he conveys speech with the intention of corruption, but the talebearer is not a qatatah because the nature of the qatatah is to convey speech from behind walls.