And prayers and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions.

The reader: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions.
He (may Allah have mercy on him) said: "And from 'Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her)

A man sought permission for audience with the Prophet (ﷺ). He said, "Give him permission but he is a bad member of his tribe."

أن رجلًا استأذن على النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم فقال: ائذنوا له بئس أخو العشيرة

Riyad as-Salihin 1531

Agreed upon by al-Bukhari and Muslim. Al-Bukhari cited this as evidence for the permissibility of backbiting those who are corrupt and those who are suspected of wrongdoing. And from her, she said:

The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "I do not think that so-and-so and so-and-so know anything of our religion."

قال رسول الله: ما أظن فلانًا وفلانًا يعرفان من ديننا شيئًا

Sahih al-Bukhari 6067

Al-Bukhari narrated it. He said: Al-Layth ibn Sa'd, one of the narrators of this hadith, said: These two men were among the hypocrites. And from Fatimah bint Qays (may Allah be pleased with her), she said:

I came to the Prophet (ﷺ) and said to him: "Muawiyah and Abul-Jahm sent me a proposal of marriage." The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, "Muawiyah is destitute and he has no property, and Abul-Jahm is very hard on women."

أتيت النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم فقلت إن أبا الجهم ومعاوية خطباني، فقال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم: أما معاوية فصعلوك لا مال له، وأما أبو الجهم فلا يضع العصا عن عاتقه

Riyad as-Salihin 1533

Agreed upon by al-Bukhari and Muslim. In a narration by Muslim:

Abul-Jahm is very hard on women

وأما أبو الجهم فضراب للنساء

Riyad as-Salihin 1533

which is an explanation of the narration

is very hard on women

لا يضع العصا عن عاتقه

Riyad as-Salihin 1533

It was said: Its meaning is that he is one who travels a lot. And from Zayd ibn Arqam (may Allah be pleased with him), he said: خرجنا مع رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم في سفر أصاب الناس فيه شدة فقال عبدالله بن أُبي: لا تنفقوا على من عند رسول الله حتى ينفضوا، وقال لئن رجعنا إلى المدينة ليخرجن الأعز منها الأذل، فأتيت رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم فأخبرته بذلك، فأرسل إلى عبد الله بن أُبي فاجتهد يمينه ما فعل، فقالوا: كذب زيد رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم فوقع في نفسي مما قالوه شدة حتى أنزل الله تعالى تصديقي: إذا جاءك المنافقون ثم دعاهم النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم ليستغفر لهم فلووا رؤوسهم We set out with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) on a journey in which the people suffered hardship. Abdullah ibn Ubayy said, “Do not spend on those with the Messenger of Allah until they disperse.” He also said, “If we return to Medina, the most noble of us will drive out the most humble.” I came to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and informed him of this. He sent for Abdullah ibn Ubayy, and he swore by his oath that he had not done it. They said, “Zayd has lied to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him).” I was greatly distressed by what they said, until Allah the Exalted revealed [a verse] confirming my truthfulness: “When the hypocrites come to you…” Then the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) called them to seek forgiveness for them, but they turned their heads away. Agreed upon by al-Bukhari and Muslim".

The Shaykh : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
The Shaykh al-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him) previously established a chapter explaining what is permissible regarding backbiting, and he cited hadiths for this. Among them is the hadith of Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was asked for permission by a man to enter his house, and he said: In another version: This man was one of the people of corruption and doubt. This indicates the permissibility of backbiting one who is among the people of corruption and doubt, so that people may be warned of his corruption and not be deceived by him. If you see a person who is corrupt and doubtful, but who has bewitched people with his eloquence and speech, such that people take from him and think he is on the right path, then it is obligatory for you to clarify that this man is not good, and to speak ill of him so that people are not deceived by him. How many people are there who are fluent in speech and eloquent in expression; when you see them, you are pleased with their appearance, and if they speak little, you listen to their words, but they are not good. The obligatory thing is to clarify their condition. Likewise, he mentioned that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), in a hadith from Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her), said: So he is a hypocrite who appears to be a Muslim but is a disbeliever. Allah the Exalted said: He also mentioned the hadith of Fatimah bint Qays regarding consultation, where she came to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) and informed him that three men had proposed to her: Mu'awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan, Abu Jahm, and Usamah ibn Zayd. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to her: But he (may Allah be pleased with him) remained until he became one of the caliphs of the Muslims, but at that time he was poor. He said: In another narration: Both mean the same thing, namely that he is bad in his treatment of women and beats them. It is not permissible for a woman to be beaten except for a reason that Allah has made clear in His saying: As for beating your wife every time she disagrees with you in the slightest way, this is a mistake and is not permissible, due to the saying of Allah the Exalted: But if you fear her defiance, her arrogance toward you, and her failure to fulfill your right, then apply these ranks with her. First: admonish her and frighten her with Allah, and make it clear to her that the right of the husband must not be neglected. If she reforms, that is what is desired. If not, the second rank is: boycott her in the bed, do not sleep with her. As for speech, do not boycott her, but you have a dispensation to boycott her in speech for three days, because it is not permissible for anyone to boycott his brother for more than three days; they meet, and this one turns away and that one turns away, and the best of them is the one who starts the greeting. The third rank is: if he finds no effect in this, then beat them, but with a beating that is not severe, meaning it is not harsh, but a beating that achieves only discipline. In another version: Both mean the same thing. It was said that the meaning of his saying: "he does not put the stick down from his shoulder" is that he travels a lot, because the traveler at that time traveled on camels and needed a stick. The apparent meaning is that it is one and the same, meaning that he is a beater of women and does not put the stick down from his shoulder, because the narrations explain each other. Then he said: Ibn Harithah, so I married him and was pleased with him and saw good in him. In this is evidence that if a person comes to you to consult you about a person, and you mention his defects, there is no harm, because this is from the category of advice, not from the category of exposing faults. There is a difference between one who backbites people to expose their faults and reveal their private matters, and one who speaks with advice. As for the fourth hadith, it is the hadith of Zayd ibn Arqam (may Allah be pleased with him). The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was on a journey, and with him were the believers and the hypocrites. The people were afflicted with hardship, so the hypocrites spoke and said, "Do not spend on those with the Messenger of Allah until they disperse," meaning do not give them anything of maintenance until they are hungry and leave the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). And they lied. The believers could not leave the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him); even if they died of hunger and thirst, they would not leave him. But this is the condition of the hypocrites who criticize the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) regarding alms; if they are given, they are pleased, and if they are not given, they are angry. As for the believers, they will not leave the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) Here, "until" is for the cause, not for the limit, meaning so that they disperse from him, but they lied in that. And they also said: And by "the noble" he meant himself and his people, and by "the humble" he meant the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). Zayd ibn Arqam (may Allah be pleased with him) heard that, so he came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and informed him that Abdullah ibn Ubayy had said this. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) sent for him, meaning for Abdullah ibn Ubayy, and he exerted himself in his oath that he had not said this, meaning he swore and affirmed and intensified his oath that he had not said it, because this is the habit of the hypocrites: they swear on lies while knowing it. So he swore that he had not said it, and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) accepted their public appearance and left their secrets to Allah. When that reached Zayd ibn Arqam, the matter became difficult for him because the man had sworn and affirmed before the Messenger and intensified his oath in that. So this became difficult for Zayd ibn Arqam, and they said, "Zayd ibn Arqam lied to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)," meaning he informed him with a lie. Until Allah revealed the verification of Zayd ibn Arqam: And consider the answer of Allah the Mighty and Majestic to the saying of Abdullah ibn Ubayy, "I will drive out the noble from it, the humble," where He said: And He did not say "Allah is the noble," because if He had said "He is the noble," it would be evidence that the hypocrites have nobility, and they have no nobility. Rather, He said: In this verse is evidence that there is no harm in a person conveying the speech of the hypocrite to the one in authority so that he may take what is appropriate in that. Likewise, the speech of the corrupter is conveyed to the one in authority so that he does not persist in his corruption. And if a person fears that corruption will occur from the speech, it is obligatory for him to convey it to the one in authority so that the corruption is eliminated before it spreads. It is not said, "I fear that the one in authority will do such and such to him, or do such and such to him; let him be, he brought it upon himself." If he is speaking words from which corruption is feared, the obligatory thing is to raise the speech to the one in authority. But it is necessary to verify, it is necessary to verify, and that the person does not fall into difficulty. In the time of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), when Abdullah ibn Ubayy denied what was said about him, revelation came down verifying Zayd ibn Arqam. But in our time, there is no revelation to support or refute, so if you verify and hear from some people speech that leads to evil and corruption, it is obligatory for you to convey it to the one in authority so that the evil and corruption do not spread. So the important thing is that the author (may Allah have mercy on him) mentioned issues and guidelines of what is permissible regarding backbiting, then he mentioned the evidence for that. And success is from Allah.