Types of Permissible Backbiting: The First Category

The Shaykh: "Casting aspersions is not backbiting in six cases," the first of which is the aggrieved person. An aggrieved person means one who has been wronged and complains of his injustice to people so that they may give him his rights and deliver him from his wrongdoer. It is permissible for this aggrieved person to say, "So-and-so has wronged me." If we apply the previous hadith to this: there is no doubt that the statement "So-and-so has wronged me" is something a person dislikes. So, is my saying "So-and-so has wronged me" part of the forbidden backbiting that is prohibited in the Book and the Sunnah? Or is it this permissible backbiting? The answer is: It is permissible backbiting, and it may even become obligatory at times if the only way to reach the truth is through backbiting the wrongdoer. And of course, the scholars did not say this based merely on their own opinion; rather, there are instances in the Sunnah that attest to the permissibility of describing the wrongdoer with his injustice by the wronged person so that he may reach his suppressed right. Among these is what the author of our book, Imam al-Bukhari, narrated in "Al-Adab al-Mufrad" and others, from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him): that a man came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said, "O Messenger of Allah, my neighbor has wronged me." He said (peace and blessings be upon him): اجعَلْ متاعَك على قارعة الطريق Put your goods on the side of the road, so the man did so. Then, naturally, the people... whenever some of them passed by, they would say, "What is the matter with you, so-and-so?" He would say, "My neighbor has wronged me." "What is the matter with you, so-and-so?" "My neighbor has wronged me." And they did nothing but speak ill of him, curse him, and insult him. In fact, they would say, "May Allah curse him. How can a Muslim wrong his Muslim brother? May Allah kill him. May Allah curse him." The neighbor would hear these curses and insults with his own ears. This was sufficient to discipline him, deter him, and stop him from his injustice. So he came to the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and said, "O Messenger of Allah, order my neighbor to return his goods to his house." So, the man's initial statement to the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), "This man has wronged me," is backbiting, because he is describing him with what he dislikes, naturally. But since this wronged person was not describing his neighbor as a wrongdoer just to vent his anger or to satisfy his own grievance, but rather to inform the Messenger (peace be upon him) of his situation so that he could address his matter, and this is what actually happened, the Messenger (peace be upon him) advised him with a practical method to stop his wrongdoing neighbor, and to punish the wrongdoer at the same time. That is because he (peace be upon him) ordered him to throw the household goods onto the road. So, as you heard, when the people saw that, they asked him about the reason, and he would say, "My neighbor has wronged me." So those curses and insults would pour down on him, and that became the cause of deterring him from his injustice. The scholars took from this hadith the permissibility of backbiting the wrongdoer by the wronged person. And this is what the Noble Quran explicitly stated, where He (Mighty and Majestic) said: لَا يُحِبُّ اللَّهُ الْجَهْرَ بِالسُّوءِ مِنَ الْقَوْلِ إِلَّا مَنْ ظُلِمَ Allah does not like the public mention of evil except by one who has been wronged[An-Nisa 4:148] This verse is explicit that a person does not speak ill except the wronged one. It is permissible to speak against one's wrongdoer until one reaches his suppressed right. From here comes the hadith that jurists mention in the book of rights and sales. He (peace be upon him) said: لَيُّ الواجدِ يُحِلُّ عرضَه وعقوبتَه If one who can afford it delays repayment, his honor and punishment become permissible.Sunan Ibn Majah 2427, ليُّ الواجد The stalling of one who has the means: "Layy" means delay, and "al-Wajid" is the rich person who has borrowed money from others and finds in his wealth the means to repay it, but he delays and does not give him his right. As he (peace be upon him) said in another hadith: مطل الغني ظلم Delaying the payment of a wealthy person is injustice. But in our first hadith, it says: ليُّ الواجد يُحلُّ عرضَه وعقوبَتَه If one who can afford it delays repayment, his honor and punishment become permissible.Sunan Ibn Majah 2427 "Layy" means delay, "al-Wajid" means the rich person. "Yuhillu 'urduhu" means it is permissible for the one who has the right, who is demanding repayment, to speak ill of him, to say, "So-and-so borrowed from me a year or two ago and has money..." This is backbiting, but it is permissible backbiting, as we mentioned earlier regarding the story of that man whose neighbor wronged him لَيُّ الواجد يُحِلُّ عرضَه وعقوبَتَه If one who can afford it delays repayment, his honor and punishment become permissible.Sunan Ibn Majah 2427. "Yuhillu 'urduhu": from the creditor who does not repay him, and "wa 'uqubatahu" from the ruler, so he is able to reach him and harm him, by imprisonment or by flogging, as a form of discipline for why he is preventing his Muslim brother from his right. The point from the hadith is his statement (peace be upon him): لَيُّ الواجد يُحِلُّ عرضَه If one who can afford it delays repayment, his honorSunan Ibn Majah 2427 meaning to speak ill of him, while this speaking ill is not permissible for a Muslim brother, as you heard in this hadith from his statement (peace be upon him): إلا امرأً اقترض امرأً ظلمًا except in a case where a man slanders someone unjustlyAl-Adab Al-Mufrad 14:33