The gravity of backbiting for the fasting person.

The Shaykh : And how many there are who have nothing from their fasting but hunger and thirst. How many there are who fast from what Allah has made lawful, but they violate what Allah has forbidden. An example of this is backbiting. Some people fast from eating, drinking, and intercourse, but they eat the flesh of people. They fast from the lawful and eat the forbidden. Backbiting is among the major sins. Allah the Exalted said: This is especially so when it is the backbiting of those in authority, namely the scholars and the rulers, for it becomes more severe and greater. For if the backbiting is of the scholars, people do not accept what they say if it tarnishes their reputation among the people, and they are spoken of in such and such a way, and their errors are exaggerated. No one is free from error. This leads to a lack of trust in their words and their not being accepted. And if the backbiting is of the rulers, that leads to rebellion against them, and their good qualities are forgotten, and only their bad qualities are mentioned. We say that rulers and scholars make mistakes like others, for all the sons of Adam are prone to error. But the true advisor is the one who, when he sees an error from a person in authority, whether a ruler or a scholar, contacts him and alerts him to it, for he may not be in error; you may think he made a mistake when he did not, and the error may be on your part. Therefore, the true advisor is the one who, when he sees an error from the scholars or the rulers, contacts them verbally or in writing and alerts them, and thereby his conscience is cleared. And if backbiting is among the major sins, we see some of the fasting people sitting with others and backbiting the servants of Allah, eating their flesh. Imam Ahmad narrated with a chain containing weakness, but there is no harm in mentioning it for the sake of citing it, that two women fasted in the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). One of them sat with the other, and they ate the flesh of people. They became so thirsty that they nearly died of thirst. This reached the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), so he called them and ordered them to vomit. They vomited pus, pus, and rotten flesh. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: There is no doubt that the chain of this hadith is weak, but many of the preachers mention it to instill fear and warn. Even if there were nothing in backbiting but that Allah likened it to eating carrion, He said: