The Shaykh transmits some of the sayings attributed to some of the righteous Salaf regarding patience with the harm of those who speak ill of them.

The Shaykh : The righteous Salaf offer us, through their knowledge and jurisprudence, very wonderful advice. For people like us who are afflicted with hidden hatred and envy toward the call, the call to the truth, this is considered one of the greatest consolations. For example, the noble Tabi'i, Umm al-Darda, not the wife of Abu al-Darda, was told: "So-and-so is speaking ill of you," meaning falsely. She said with a cool head: "If we are blamed for what is not in us, then as long as we have praised what is not in us." Look, this is a reality. Justice and being free from exaggeration in praise and blame is almost nonexistent. So she says: "If we are blamed," meaning criticized, "for what is not in us, then as long as we have praised what is not in us." So this is the counterpart to that. Someone tells him: "So-and-so is backbiting you." He entered the room and came out with a tray containing various kinds of fruits, saying: "Take this to so-and-so," the one who backbites. Tell him: "This is in return for the good deeds you send to me." Ha ha, the good deeds, because backbiting is, for him, good deeds. I say: First, I am not like al-Hasan al-Basri in knowledge, asceticism, virtue, and so on. Second, because of the abundance of backbiting, I would need many trays, and I am unable to provide them. Ha ha.

The questioner : You distribute it, O Shaykh.

The Shaykh : Both the linguistic and the technical meanings. I do not see that we should engage with them in that regard. Rather, we should continue to uphold the old Islamic legal and technical meaning, and not engage with people who manipulate words and develop their meanings, such as the term "extremism" now, and "fundamentalists," and the like. In any case, I do not discuss such issues, which are sources of disagreement and conflict. They have combined the two calamities.