Explanation of the third characteristic that permits backbiting, which is the one who warns, and mentioning the evidence for it.

The Shaykh : As for the third, it is the one who warns, "the one who complains, the one who informs, and the one who warns." Warning is a very serious matter, and we should cultivate this character trait and not leave people as some of the heedless report from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said: . They fabricated a hadith by taking the first part of his words and the last word from their false saying. His saying (peace be upon him): is established in "Sahih Muslim," but the rest of it has no connection to that word they attached to the authentic hadith, either out of ignorance or malice. The complete hadith in "Sahih Muslim" is: . This relates to the brokers who used to go out in the past, and perhaps some of this still happens today, because I am not a merchant. In the past, a man would go out to meet the Bedouins who came with goods like butter, ghee, milk, and cream from outside the town, and he would set the price he pleased. In such a case, he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: ; meaning, they should enter the market and sell as Allah (Mighty and Majestic) makes easy. Then some ignorant or malicious people, as we said, deleted the rest of the hadith and put in its place the word: , .
I never thought that a hadith like this would deceive a jurist. It might be thought to be an inauthentic hadith, but for its meaning to deceive him and affect him—and here is the point—I never thought this until I heard it with my own ears in the early days of my pursuit of knowledge. My knowledge had not yet reached the point I am telling you about now, that this hadith with this wording has no basis. Until I was surprised by one of the shaykhs who passed away to the mercy of Allah. There was a mosque in the area where we used to live with my father (may Allah have mercy on him) that had a grave in it. I was trying to explain to people that the matter is as Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) said: "A mosque and a grave do not coexist in the religion of Islam." The majority of people were surprised by this, because—regrettably—they find that most of their old mosques have a grave or more, and they had not heard any of these shaykhs say to them such a thing, that at least it is not permissible for there to be a grave in the mosque. I had a friend, and our friendship was new, so when he heard what I was saying, he took me to that shaykh. He thought that this shaykh was a learned and virtuous man, and that he would establish the proof against me. So I met with him at my home, and the shaykh combined two contradictory things. First, I had a good opinion of him because he agreed with me on this ruling, and few shaykhs have agreed with me on this to this day, because the matter has become widespread and prevalent, especially since most of them know very little of the Sunnah. But this man agreed with me. However, as much as it pleased me, it saddened me, because he said: "But, my brother, what do you have to do with the people? The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: !"
I said earlier that I had not heard this hadith before, but I answered him, "O Shaykh, is this hadith authentic?" He said, "Yes, we have read it in the books." I said, "But if this hadith is authentic, where is enjoining good and forbidding evil? I argued with him using my general knowledge, as I had no specific knowledge of this hadith. This means, O Shaykh, that it nullifies the ruling; the Shari'ah ruling of enjoining good and forbidding evil, which we are commanded to do in the Qur'an and Sunnah, and so on. The matter was muddled and the issue was lost, but my mind was preoccupied: does such a hadith exist in the world? So I barely finished, even though it was late at night and I had just arrived home, when I immediately began to research it. And I found it mentioned in the books that distinguish the authentic from the weak and from what has no basis. I still remember that the first book I returned to was "Kashf al-Khafa wa Muzil al-Ilbas 'an al-Ahadith al-Mashhurat bayn al-Nas" by the Shaykh Isma'il al-'Ajluni. And there he mentions the previous truth that the hadith in "Sahih Muslim" is: , whereas , I think, is transmitted from al-Hafiz al-Sakhawi or al-'Asqalani that this wording has no basis. So I said: Praise be to Allah. The research I did with the shaykh, based on general principles, matched the reality that this wording is not authentically attributed to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him).
So I return to say: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), after having clarified to us in the previous examples that there is no objection to a Muslim mentioning a fault in someone to advise another or to warn, it is not permissible for a Muslim today to say that word we mentioned earlier: "Why did you cut off her or his livelihood!"
Likewise, warning is an important matter, because it also falls under the category of enjoining good and forbidding evil. Among the hadiths of the Messenger (peace be upon him) is his saying: . So if you, O Muslim, see your Muslim brother associating with a man of bad character, or mixing with young men who deviate from Islam and the Shari'ah of Allah, it is obligatory for you to warn them with the warning of the Messenger (peace be upon him) in the previous hadith: . Why? Because the matter, as the common people say, taking from the authentic hadiths of the Messenger (peace be upon him), is: "The companion is a dragger." So when you see a young man growing up in obedience to Allah mixing with foolish young men who have no good character, you must fear that they will drag him to what they have no good character for. Therefore, you should warn him, for the companion is a dragger. This is taken from his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) in al-Bukhari and Muslim: . So in any case, you are a gainer. At the very least, you smell something that benefits you, and a person spends a portion of his money in order to smell pleasant, pure scents. So if you keep the company of a righteous Muslim man, you will certainly benefit from him, like the example of a seller of musk; either he gives it to you for free, or you buy it from him for money, or you smell a pleasant scent from him.
. So the companion is indeed a dragger; if he is righteous, he benefits you, even if the benefit is very simple, like a pleasant scent. And if he is wicked, he harms you, either with severe harm, which he alluded to by saying he will burn your clothes, or less than that, by you smelling a foul scent from him.
Yes?

Eid Abbasi : .

The Shaykh : Also, the professor reminds us of his saying (peace be upon him): . Whoever takes a companion and a friend based on the religion of his companion, this all confirms this famous meaning: "The companion is a dragger." Therefore, it is not backbiting if you want to warn a Muslim about associating with a group or an individual and you say: "So-and-so has such and such," because you do not want to gloat over this, but rather you want to warn your companion about him. This is the third category: the one who warns.