We request clarification of the issue of granting a respite to the insolvent debtor and the delay of the wealthy debtor, and an explanation of the verse indicating this. Also, please clarify the Shaykh, the circumstances in which backbiting is permissible.

Abu Layla : Our esteemed Shaykh, we request an extensive explanation of the saying of Allah the Exalted: May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh If a person has a right and a debt due from another, and the time for repayment has arrived, and when he demands this right, the debtor excuses himself by saying he is insolvent and not in a position to pay; if he is truthful in this excuse, then the owner of the right must accept his excuse and wait for him until he is in a position to pay. There is no doubt that this ruling applies to one who is truly in difficulty. As for one who prioritizes his own interests and his secondary, non-essential needs over repaying the debt, then he is a delayer. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said in an authentic hadith: The delay of the wealthy is an injustice. And in another hadith, more terrifying than the first, he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: ... The first hadith The second hadith meaning the delay of the one who has the means to pay in fulfilling his obligation. The intended meaning of his saying "his honor is exposed" is that he is targeted, criticized, and his reputation is tarnished. It is said, "So-and-so has wronged me," or "So-and-so is delaying me, and he is not unable to pay, but he is capable of it." It is permissible for the wronged party who is being delayed to tarnish the reputation of the wealthy delayer, meaning to publicize his fault. This is not at all of the forbidden backbiting. I said it is not of the forbidden backbiting because there is permissible backbiting, but even so, it is sensitive and delicate, and not everyone is able to distinguish between this permissible backbiting and the forbidden backbiting, whose prohibition is the default, as is well known in the authentic hadith, namely his (peace be upon him) saying: This is the default regarding backbiting, which is mentioning your brother in a way he dislikes. It is forbidden, as is explicit in the hadith and the well-known verse But as the jurists say in many issues, "There is no general rule that has not been specified." The default and generality in backbiting is prohibition, but it has exceptions. Among these exceptions is what we mentioned earlier regarding the creditor who is delayed by the debtor after the due date has arrived, while the debtor has the means to pay but spends his money. We do not say that it is not permissible, but at least it is not recommended, whereas this is an obligation he must fulfill, yet he does not perform this obligation, while he performs recommended matters, if they are recommended, and the best of their states is that they are permissible and lawful. The evidence that led the scholars to specify forbidden backbiting with other matters that permit backbiting, even though it is disliked by the one being backbitten, are many texts from the Book and the Sunnah. The noble verse says: except for one who has been wronged; so this wronged person is permitted to speak out with bad words regarding the wrongdoer. And there are many hadiths from which the jurists derived six categories of backbiting in which it is true that the one being backbitten dislikes it, but it is not true that it is forbidden backbiting. So one of the jurists who was a poet said:
"Criticism is not backbiting in six cases: the wronged, the one seeking information, and the one warning,
the one openly committing open sinfulness, the one seeking a fatwa, and the one seeking help in removing a wrong."
These are six things. Criticism, censure, is not backbiting in six cases. The wronged: we have brought you the verse and the hadith . And before we digress too much from this hadith we were discussing, some of the attendees might ask: We understood the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) intention in his saying "his honor is exposed," but what does "his punishment" mean in his saying ? The answer is that the punishment here returns to the ruler, the legal judge. If the wronged person brings his complaint against that wrongdoer to the judge, and the judge summons him and learns from him that he is a delayer, meaning a wealthy delayer who is not insolvent but is in a position to pay, then the judge punishes him for his delay and his negligence in fulfilling the right of his brother. So, for the one who has the means, his honor is exposed regarding the creditor, and his punishment is regarding the ruler. We return to the six characteristics that were excepted from forbidden backbiting. The first was the wronged, and in this is this Quranic text and Prophetic hadith. There is another hadith, which is one of the marvels of the Messenger's (peace and blessings be upon him) methods in educating the Muslim who has strayed from the straight path. Imam al-Bukhari narrated in his book *Al-Adab al-Mufrad* from the hadith of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him): This is one of the hadiths by which scholars argue for the permissibility of backbiting the wrongdoer. First, the wronged person complained to the Messenger, saying, "My neighbor has wronged me." There is no doubt that this is backbiting according to the general definition, as it is mentioning your brother in a way he dislikes; he dislikes it being said about him that he is a wrongdoer. But the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), who came with a law to rectify what is corrupt among people, does not leave the general rule that was established to rectify people so that it becomes a harm that corrupts people; rather, he places constraints, limits, and conditions on it. This placement is through his (peace be upon him) explanation by his action and his speech. We find that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) in this incident did not take the position toward the complaining wronged person of saying to him, as some ignorant, overly strict people might do, "Be silent, my brother, this is backbiting." Because the Messenger said: This cold scrupulousness today is represented in many transactions related to some people in various different forms. For example, a man might come to a friend of a man named Zayd. The man wants to partner with the aforementioned Zayd, so he comes to his friend and asks, "My brother, I want to partner with this Zayd, what do you know about him? I want to enter this partnership with full knowledge, what do you know about him?" He might know all the evil about him, but the poor man, due to his ignorance of the Shari'ah of his Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), thinks that if he mentions what is in him, he has backbitten him, based on the hadith he hears on every occasion, which is, praise be to Allah, an authentic hadith, but it is not explained correctly. So the answer is to conceal the truth and be frank with the opposite, saying, "My brother, all people are good and blessed. All people are good and blessed." So the person seeking advice has no choice but to partner with him, and after a time, it becomes clear that the one he sought advice from did not advise him, even though the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) affirmed the obligation of advice for Muslims in the well-known hadith from Tamim al-Dari (may Allah be pleased with him), in which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: and for the leaders of the Muslims and their common people. The point here, and the hadith takes a long explanation, is that the common people of the Muslims, every Muslim must advise them. So when this Zayd was approached by the one seeking advice asking, "I want to partner with so-and-so," it was incumbent upon him to clarify all the evil he knows about him, not with the intention of taking revenge or vindictiveness, but with the intention of what? Advice and clarification. And therefore, we must understand this topic well and specify it with these six types. The first is the wronged. The second is the one seeking information. The one seeking information has examples from the biography and from the reality of Muslims in every time and place. It came in the Sunnah that a noble woman from the learned Companions, her name was Fatimah bint ... I forgot, her name was Fatimah. Her husband divorced her twice, then he traveled away for work, so he sent to her agent, he sent to her the third divorce. The agent came to her to inform her that her husband had divorced her the third time, so she was separated from him with a major separation. On that basis, he asked her to leave his house, the house of the divorced husband. So she demanded the right of residence and the right of maintenance, as is the case today in the prevailing systems and laws. He said to her, and he was the agent: "You have no right to residence or maintenance." She said: "So she donned her outer garment and went to..." Yes, her name was Fatimah bint Qays. Because the famous among the female Companions are two Fatimahs, and there are many, but the famous are two: one is this Fatimah bint Qays, and the other is named Fatimah bint Abi Hubaysh. When I started and was narrating the first story, I stopped and feared that I would confuse one with the other, so I was content to say Fatimah, then I recalled my memory and remembered that it was Fatimah bint Qays. Fatimah bint Abi Hubaysh has a story that it is good for men to know before women, even though her story relates to women and not men. (He laughs)The Shaykh : (may Allah have mercy on him) —

The questioner : ... specifically those who work...

The Shaykh : Yes, the point is that Fatimah bint Qays came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and mentioned to him what she had heard from her husband’s agent, namely that she was entitled to nothing. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Why? Because she had been divorced with the third divorce; and accordingly, he (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered her to leave the house because she was occupying it. As for financial maintenance, it was not prescribed for her, so she had no claim to it. As for housing, it was in her possession, so he ordered her to leave her husband’s house so that the husband’s agent could take possession of the house. He said to her: , then he mentioned Umm Sharik, a female Companion, and then, following up on his statement to her, he said: So he hastened and said (peace and blessings be upon him): And he said to her (peace and blessings be upon him): What does this beautiful Arabic phrase mean? "When your waiting period is over, come to me." So she went to the blind man, 'Amr ibn Umm Maktum. This is the correct version of his name, though it is also said to be 'Abd Allah, 'Abd Allah ibn Umm Maktum in one narration, but the correct one is 'Amr ibn Umm Maktum, and it is about him that Allah the Exalted revealed: up to the end of the verses. Her waiting period ended, and then she came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) and said: "O Messenger of Allah, my waiting period has ended, and so-and-so and so-and-so have proposed to me. Abu Jahm proposed to me" — with a meem, not Abu Jahl, that dead and wicked man — "Abu Jahm and Mu'awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan proposed to me." She was presenting these two suitors to him (peace and blessings be upon him) to see his opinion of them. So what was his statement (peace and blessings be upon him)? It was not like the statement of that person who says everyone is good and blessed. Rather, he mentioned the flaw of each of them in light of the reality, which is the question. He said (peace and blessings be upon him): He does not take the stick off his shoulder. There are two interpretations of this Prophetic phrase: one is that he is a man who beats women, and the other is that he travels a lot. Because when the Arabs travel, what do they do? They put the stick on the shoulder and the saddlebag on the back and walk. In any case, this phrase is an allusion to one of these two meanings, and both are flaws in a man that a wife or a woman being proposed to would not approve of. This was his (peace and blessings be upon him) description of the first suitor, Abu Jahm, describing him in a way that repels the woman from him. Then he said (peace and blessings be upon him): , meaning he is poor, with no status or rank, no wealth, and so on. What was the woman’s stance toward this description? She did not desire either of them. What do the ignorant people say today? "Her share has been cut off." This is ignorance itself. But she said, after seeing her hesitation and deviation from them, that Usamah ibn Zayd was proposed to her, and she accepted him. She said, "So I was pleased with him," meaning she felt at ease with him. The point is his statement about one of them that he is a man who beats women; this is backbiting. And about the other, that he is a poor vagabond with no value; this is backbiting. But this backbiting is forgiven, indeed obligatory, in the path of advising the woman. And from here, we must understand the error of those who do not advise those who seek advice, who are, for example, in need of proposing to a woman or a girl. He comes to her neighbor and says, "My brother, I want to propose to so-and-so for myself or my son or such. What do you think of her?" The same traditional answer in some countries: "Everyone has good and blessings in them." He knows that she is loose in her gaze, that she goes out of the house, and that she is not suitable for a righteous Muslim suitor. Why does he not advise? "It is backbiting. We cut off her share, my brother, it is not permissible." So the scholars said that disparagement is not backbiting in six cases: the one who is wronged and known, and the one who is warned. We brought the example from the hadith and the example from reality: "So-and-so, by Allah, is good, but she does not pray. By Allah, she prays, but she goes out displaying her adornment. By Allah, this and that, everything about her is good, but she is employed," and so on. All of this must be explained to the suitor who seeks advice, otherwise it is deception and not advice. "The one who is wronged and known, and the one who is warned." Warned. This image has two contrasting realities, most clearly distinguished: those from whom one should be warned are not warned about, and those with whom one should associate are told, "Beware of him and him." A free man is satisfied with a hint. For example, one might see a man associating with a handsome, slender youth, and know about this youth some effeminacy or homosexuality, and the one associating with him is a man, not the man known for good conduct, uprightness, righteousness, and piety. And there is in the neighborhood, in the quarter, someone who knows the truth of this. And it is obligatory to advise this youth and say, "Do not associate with this man whom I saw you walking with." This is an image from which you can derive many and very numerous images. As for the opposite image, where warning is not permissible: "So-and-so, my brother, do not walk with him." "What, my brother? This is a righteous man and a worshipper. By Allah, he is as you say, 'but he is a Wahhabi.'" And "beware of him and warn from him."

The questioner : There are people in the endowments who are afraid to walk with other people, their fear being that they will be counted among their group.

The Shaykh : Good — he laughsThe Shaykh : (may Allah have mercy on him) — This is the third category: one who warns openly and commits open sin. The fourth is one who commits open sin and openly defies, not fearing Allah and not being ashamed of the servants of Allah. This person is not subject to backbiting; however, I mention this, for the reminder benefits the believers, that when it comes to backbiting this open sinner, it is not permissible for the one who backbites to do so to spread his faults or to quench the thirst of his anger, but rather to give advice to the people and to inform them about him. So, it is permissible to backbite this open sinner, not as a reaction or based on a famous hadith with a weak chain that does not constitute a proof, namely: This is one of the hadiths that is not authentically attributed to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), even though its meaning is correct. This hadith resembles another hadith found in al-Jami' al-Saghir in both its weak chain and its correct meaning: "Do you show restraint?" meaning, do you show cold restraint? Do you show restraint? And all the previous examples, meaning, backbiting the open sinner and the wicked one is not for spreading his character flaws, but only to warn the people against him. So, it also falls under the category of advice. It might be said: Since the first hadith has a weak chain and the second is its explanation, what is the correct evidence that backbiting the open sinner is permissible? We say: The hadith of Imam al-Bukhari in his Sahih, narrated by the Lady A'ishah (may Allah be pleased with her), who said: Is this backbiting or not? It is backbiting; because that man was righteous, and the Messenger mentioned him, without a doubt, with what he disliked. But this is not included in the general text: When he entered the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) presence, he smiled at him and was cheerful, and sat for a while before leaving. Who was observing the situation? The Lady A'ishah (may Allah be pleased with her). When the man left, she said: "O Messenger of Allah, when he asked for permission to enter, I said: 'Allow him to enter; what a bad brother of the clan he is.' And when he entered, you smiled at him and were cheerful?" He said: So this is the wicked one. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), in order to inform the people about him, said: "What a bad brother of the clan he is." But he was the head of a clan, and under his authority were some of the weak believers. If the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) had not treated him well and dealt with him kindly, but had been harsh with him in speech, this wicked leader would have turned into a harm to the weak followers of the Messenger who were from the man's clan. And so he said (peace be upon him), and this is part of his style of speech; he did not say "What a bad man he is," but said: The clan is a group of people, and he is their head, and under him is a group of good Muslims. So the Messenger (peace be upon him) was gentle with him when he received him, but he did not conceal the truth of his matter from the listeners, due to his first statement: This became a proof for the scholars and jurists who follow him (peace be upon him) that it is permissible to backbite the wicked one with the intention of what? Warning the people. He said: "And one who openly commits sin and seeks a ruling." The one seeking a ruling: These cases occur frequently, and very frequently, in every time and place, just as what happened in the time of the Messenger (peace be upon him). Hind, the wife of Abu Sufyan, came and said: "O Messenger of Allah, my husband is a stingy, miserly man." Here is the backbiting; the man was absent, and the wife was backbiting him, meaning she was speaking about him in his absence in a way he would dislike. "Should I take from his wealth what is sufficient for me and my children?" The Messenger's position was not that of those who show that cold restraint, saying: "Be silent, O honorable woman; this is backbiting your husband and is not permissible." Rather, he listened to her, remained silent regarding her statement, and gave her the answer to her question. He said to her: So the Messenger (peace be upon him) remained silent about this backbiting because the one being backbitten was seeking a ruling, wanting to know the ruling of Allah regarding the situation she was in with her husband. The husband was stingy with her and did not provide what was obligatory for her and her children in terms of maintenance. So she felt the need to take from his wealth, but she did not want to proceed to take this money except after asking the Messenger (peace be upon him) and knowing the legal ruling in that matter. And this is part of the scrupulousness of the female Companions and their fear of Allah the Mighty and Majestic, and that they do not proceed to do anything except after asking the people of knowledge. So the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said to her: On the condition that it is what is sufficient for you, not that you take as you please and act as if the wealth is yours. No, rather, you and your child take what is sufficient for you from his wealth in a good manner. The point is that this hadith is among the evidences for the fifth type mentioned by the jurist-poet in his verse, which is his saying: "And one who seeks a ruling." And the sixth and last is one who seeks assistance in removing a wrong. And one who seeks assistance in removing a wrong. The general principles of the Shari'ah, among which is the saying of Allah the Exalted: And similar to His saying (peace be upon him): Meaning, in a type of hardship and confusion, they said: "If we dig a hole in the bottom of the ship and draw water directly." So he said (peace be upon him): Meaning, the one who enjoins good and forbids evil, and so on. So, if for example there is a clean neighborhood from places frequented by sinners and wicked people, such as bars, cinemas, and taverns, and one of them is informed that there is a person who wants to open a place to sell what is not permissible by the Shari'ah, such as intoxicants, for example, or similar things, or wants to open a cinema house, as they say, in a village that does not know these amusements at all, and so on; but this man who was informed of the news cannot prevent this oppressor, who has resolved to open that forbidden place, on his own. So he comes to Zayd, Bakr, and 'Amr and tells them that so-and-so wants to do such-and-such. This is undoubtedly the last type of backbiting, which is cooperation and seeking assistance in removing a wrong. Because if they leave this person, he will drown and the residents will drown. So in these six cases, it is permissible for the Muslim to backbite sometimes, if first his intention is not to slander the man, but rather his intention is to advise the Muslim or the Muslims. This is a principle that we must know well.