The chapter that follows is: "The Talebearer."

The Shaykh : The chapter that follows is: "The Talebearer." In it, he narrated with his authentic chain of narration from Hammam: We were with Hudhayfah, and it was said to him: "Indeed, a man is raising the hadith to Uthman." Hudhayfah said: "I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) say: ."
We were with Hudhayfah, Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman, a man among the prominent Companions of the Messenger (peace be upon him). He had a special status with him that no one else shared, for 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). So Hudhayfah was the keeper of the Messenger's (peace be upon him) secrets and knew the names of those hypocrites. Therefore, 'Umar, despite his excellence and despite what the Messenger (may Allah's prayer and peace be upon him) said about him: , 'Umar would come to Hudhayfah and ask him, "Am I mentioned among the names of those hypocrites?" and he would reassure him by saying, "No." This is Hudhayfah. It was said to him that a man is raising the hadith to Uthman. This phrase is an Arabic expression, but a technical term has been applied to it in the science of hadith. From the Arabic perspective, "raising the hadith to Uthman" means he is talebearing. I think no one is unaware of the meaning of talebearing, but the term intended in the hadith is explained more precisely than "talebearer." He says "raising the hadith" means he is talebearing. What does "talebearing" mean? He hears the talk of people; he is sitting and hears one person insulting or criticizing another, whether rightly or wrongly. What this talebearer does is convey this speech to the one who was criticized, with the intention of sowing discord between the critic and the criticized. This man was conveying the talk to Uthman, meaning he would sit with people and listen to what people were saying about Uthman. Perhaps many of you know that in the time of Uthman, many, many fitnahs (trials, discord or temptation) occurred, and the result of that, unfortunately, was that the people rebelled against him and killed him in his house while he was reciting the Book of Allah. Undoubtedly, every fitnah, when it becomes great, has preliminaries that preceded it, as it is said: "And the fire is nothing but from the small sparks." So 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 quickly say to 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 is a man raising the hadith, meaning conveying the talk to Uthman in the way of corruption and talebearing, this is the linguistic meaning. But the technical meaning of "raising the hadith" is an abbreviation for: "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. "Raising the hadith" means he is talebearing; "raising the hadith" means he is attributing it to the Messenger (peace be upon him). So if such an expression, "raising the hadith," comes in the same context and flow where the speaker intends talebearing, then the meaning of "raising the hadith" is attributing it to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). But here it is very clear that the intended meaning of his saying "raising the hadith to Uthman" is conveying 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: But some scholars mentioned a detail regarding talebearing and applied it to one of the aspects. That detail is this term: "qattat." If a man sits in a gathering among people openly and hears what was said about so-and-so, then conveys it, that is the talebearer. But the one who does not sit with people, but rather eavesdrops from behind the backs of people, without them knowing 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—also—this is the meaning of qattat. So the qattat is a talebearer, without doubt, but not every talebearer is a qattat. That is, from the perspective of the principles of jurisprudence, it has generality and specificity, and likewise in language. Every qattat is a talebearer, but not every talebearer is a qattat. Why? Because the talebearer who steals the talk from behind walls and conveys the talk to the criticized one meets the talebearer who is in the gathering and conveys the talk with the intention of corruption at this point. But the difference between the qattat and the talebearer is: the talebearer is sitting and not spying, whereas the qattat spies and conveys the talk. We can summarize that the qattat combines two misforties, 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 corruption between them. This is the meaning of qattat. So every qattat is a talebearer, but not every talebearer is a qattat. 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 have spoken the truth, but you cannot say "every animal is a human." Likewise, if you say "the qattat is a talebearer," it is correct, because he conveys the talk with the intention of corruption, but the talebearer is not a qattat, because the nature of the qattat is to convey the talk from behind walls.