Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Is it backbiting when talking about someone else without mentioning their name? (can you prove your answer by hadith…)
Walaikum assalam wa rahmatullah,
If
a) you mention something that the person would be expected to dislike being mentioned, and
b) the one you are talking to knows who that person is, even if unmentioned by name,
then it is backbiting.
The Beloved of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) said,
“Backbiting is to mention your brother with that which he dislikes.” [Muslim, Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud]
Imam al-Barkawi said in his masterpiece on the operationalization of taqwa, al-Tariqa al-Muhammadiyya,
“Backbiting is to mention the negative points of a specific brother who is known to those being addressed, or to indicate these points or make them known by the hand or any other limbs.”
Allama Abu Sa`id al-Khadimi explained,
“(A specific brother who is known to those one being addressed) for the who is not specified or known would not be backbiting.” [al-Bariqa al-Mahmudiyya fi Sharh al-Tariqa al-Muhammadiyya, 3: 183)
Safety lies is holding fast to the counsel of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace),
“Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day should say that which is good or remain silent.” [Bukhari and Muslim]
And he said (peace and blessings be upon him),
“Whoever is silent is saved.” [Tirmidhi, Ahmad, and others; Ibn Hajar declared Tirmidhi’s chain of narrators to be reliable narrators]
And,
“From the excellence of a one’s Islam is to leave that which does not concern one.” [Tirmidhi, Ibn Maja, Ahmad]
The scholars explain “that which concerns him” as being anything in which there is a real worldly or next-worldly benefit.
(Search for ‘backbiting’ at www.sunnipath.com)
Wassalam,
Faraz Rabbani