Surah Al-Hujurat:
Ghibbat, Part-II
By
His grace, Allah (swt) has given me the Tawfiq
to continue on the same subject of my Friday Sermon which I started
last week on “Ghibbat”
(backbiting). It is indeed a very important subject for all members
of the Jamaat Ul Sahih Al Islam and the rest of the Muslim Ummah
in general.
When
we analyse the different Hadiths on “Ghibbat”,
we reach one same conclusion that “Ghibbat”
occurs when you are aware of the flaw of someone or you spy to know
more about him and his flaws and thereafter you spread the news
everywhere with the intention of humiliating him in the eyes of other
people.
There are such kinds of people who seize the opportunity of
big gatherings/ crowds to backbite someone, with the sole intention
of humiliating him and to abase him further in the eyes of the
people. Such people want to make everyone know about the flaws of
that person and to make them have disgust for him and to go far away
from him or even to be wary of him. When such things happen according
to the plan of the backbiter, he derives a great pleasure in it. Such
[evil-minded] people do not look at their own selves, their own flaws
and they do not ponder over the time when they will have to account
for all these misdeeds in front of their Creator. It
is the jealousy and hatred which he conceals in his heart which makes
him react and act stupidly like a malefactor/ bad guy.
Now, there is
another category of people who talks about the flaws of a person in
his absence and he takes great pleasure in it. Whenever the person is
absent, he heaps a lot of bad talks on him. When he finds himself
surrounded by people who are ready to listen to him, he seizes the
occasion to talk foolishly about the person he wants to humiliate
just because that person is not present to refute him or to defend
his honour.
So
this is a great sin and Allah (swt) says in the Quran, giving this
example: “Would any of you like to eat
the flesh of their dead brother?”
When one hears such a thing – about eating the flesh of someone,
one gets a disgust against that. A believer (Mumin)
develops a distaste for that, but on the other hand, an imbecile who
harbours hatred in heart – like an ex-so-called Amir and his
Mullahs in the Jamaat Ahmadiyya did at the beginning of the Divine
Manifestation, from the year 2001 onwards on the pulpit (minbar)
of the Noble Prophet (pbuh) – will not get any revulsion in doing
such acts. On the contrary, such people ate our flesh with appetite,
like cannibals.
Here
in this verse [Al-Hujurat 49:13], Allah is calling attention to the
fact that when you talk against your brothers and sisters everyday –
i.e. not only your blood-relations – but your every brother and
sister of one same faith [all believers], therefore, when you talk
against them, it is as if you are eating the flesh of their dead
bodies with great pleasure and appetite. The angle in which such a
person who does this, i.e. backbite, think on the same matter is
completely different from the angle in which Allah sees it. The
Prophet of Allah (pbuh) also did not approve of that and was always
in accord with what Allah revealed to him [for Allah knows all… He
knows with which intention they have done it].
So,
“Ghibbat”
(and all evils connected with it) – eating the flesh of your
brother/ sister – is a grievous spiritual illness, a sin and it
also indicates a great and profound flaw which is present in the
character itself of the backbiter, in his taste and his reform
becomes much more difficult [than for others]. If someone takes
conscience of his mistakes and well understands that what he has done
is very serious, a very grievous sin, then such a person who is
remorseful will seek divine forgiveness. He will be repentant and
take the decision to not approach that sin again, and when he does
so, then Allah (swt) will definitely forgive him and shower upon him
His mercy.
I
can tell you that lots of people write to me and there are others
whom I encounter, but no one would say: I
have done “Ghibbat” (backbiting).
There are some people who are conscious of their errors, and
afterwards come forward to present their excuses and they realise
their errors and try to reform themselves and they afterwards become
excellent believers. On the other hand, there are also such types of
people – many of them – who persist in their wrongs and also
persist in seeing themselves as innocent even though they are guilty
of committing such sins. According to them, they are always right!
And they seek, through their arrogance to portrait themselves as Mr.
Know-It-All and that they are always right and there is no humility
and courage in them to accept their weaknesses/ flaws and grievous
sins. You will not find them say: “Pray
for me so that Allah (swt) may forgive me for I have indeed committed
a very ugly deed before the eyes of Allah.”
This kind of person thinks that when he shall persist and show
himself right, despite him being in the wrong, then the people shall
have the impression that he is truly right/ innocent. But in the
sight of Allah, the deeds of that person are truly heinous and his
consequences with Allah shall be grievous.
Sometimes,
I as the Khalifatullah give some advices to my disciples/ followers
and many of such messages is given to the attention to all of them/
you. This is so that you may always take the right path. There are
some members who are truly affected by those messages, they feel
absolutely remorseful and they take those messages directly for
themselves. If they are not guilty of the sins/ mistakes which Allah
is warning them about, then they have no fear to have. They should
feel happy, but if they are really guilty of what Allah has warned
against and revealed, - and Allah indeed knows all hearts and sees
all deeds - and if they know deep inside that they were guilty of
such misdeeds, then they should repent and reform themselves.
An
advice : It is better to
accept defeat in this world – despite the fact that you know full
well that you are right – and indeed the fruits thereof [of your
patience] shall be very sweet in the hereafter. We humans are indeed
very weak. If we commit a wrong deed, we should not persist in
portraying ourselves as innocent people, and we should not show
arrogance. On the contrary, you should pray a lot to Allah (duahs)
so that Allah may forgive you and protect you against a bad end in
consequence of the act which you have committed [i.e. when you commit
such heinous deeds].
Sometimes
you see that people do “Ghibbat”
(backbiting) on someone and take great pleasure in it, and suddenly
the person [whom they are backbiting] appears before them (enters the
room/ place where they are having such conversations), and thus, they
quickly change the topic of their conversations and their faces
change colour – disconcerted – as if they have been caught in the
act, and they try to cover what they just said about that someone
with another topic which they quickly improvise and feeling guilty,
try to tell the subject of their backbiting [i.e. the person whom
they were backbiting] that they were talking about such and such
things [not at all connected with the person at all]. And when the
person goes away, or they find themselves at a distance from him,
they find this funny, they laugh, but indeed it is but a disconcerted
laugh. In their hearts they feel that they just got off the hook –
they were nearly caught in the act of backbiting by the person whom
they were backbiting! They are fully conscious that they were doing a
wrong thing.
There
is another instance when you are only talking good things about
someone. You are not backbiting him, and thus when you know that the
person has come to the same place (in the same room) as you, or is
just behind you, you shall not feel embarrassed or disconcerted that
you were talking about him (about his good qualities); on the
contrary, you were only talking well, with a good intention and thus
you would not feel ashamed that the person has overheard you [for you
know also that you were not doing it for show, or to make that person
purposefully hear you say good things about him]. Perhaps, when that
person has overheard you say good things about him, you will worry
lest in your [good] talks you may have hurt him and you present your
apologies, but deep inside you, you know that you were not doing
“Ghibbat”.
The person whom you were praising may even feel shy that you were
telling so much good about him.
There
is another situation where one is clearly telling an open lie. This
is not “Ghibbat”
[but something even worse]. There was such a situation mentioned in
Muslim, Kitab-ul-Birr, reported by Hazrat Abu Huraira (ra) that
Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh) asked his Sahaba
(companions): “Do
you know what backbiting is?”
They said, “Allah
and His Messenger know best.”
He continued, “Saying
something about your brother that he dislikes.”
Someone then asked, “What
if what I say about my brother is true?”
The Prophet Muhammad responded: “If
what you say is true then you have backbitten about him, and if it is
not true, then you have slandered him.”
The
Holy Prophet (pbuh) has said that if the person has the flaw which
you were talking about in his absence, then it is “Ghibbat”
(backbiting). But if what you were talking about him is false, then
it is a false allegation, a blame. And this is an even greater sin
(i.e. when you heap all kinds of blames
on a person when you cannot prove anything. You blame him with
adultery etc., without bringing four witnesses… and other false
allegations, just to humiliate him) –
This is indeed such a great sin that the Quran has prescribed severe
chastisement for this. Allah’s anger knows no bound when such false
allegations are put on an innocent person.
So,
in both cases (whether what you are saying is true or not –
concerning the flaw of someone), there is no valid reason for you to
talk about this. If that which you say is true, it is “Ghibbat”
and if it is false, it is a blame. Putting on someone a false
allegation is tantamount to (equal to) killing someone. In the
spiritual world, a blame is equivalent to a crime; and thus it is
equivalent to committing the sin of killing. It is not more loathsome
than eating the flesh of a dead body but it is much worse than that.
It is way much more unjust. And you shall be accountable for all this
before Allah.
So,
this subject is really vast, but it also has a direct meaning. But
where the protection of the moral level of the society is concerned,
this becomes very important. If you have not understood this subject
and you have not accomplished its right, then it is liable that you
become – many times – prone to such evils; you become responsible
for planting the seeds of hatred. And when this happened, it is
complete hypocrisy to showcase big signboards which states: “Love
for All, Hatred for None”. Why
showcase this when you have planted the seeds of hatred in the people
of the Jamaat [Jamaat of the Promised Messiah] in such a way that
this hatred has penetrated the heart of families – blood relations
– such hatred which has gone on to make it way more deeply and
everywhere ripping/ breaking family ties, and through this very
hatred, you instruct them to boycott their own family – brothers
and sisters – and you poke your nose in their private family life?
For
the eyes of people, you put such larger than life signboards “Love
for All, Hatred for None”, but
before the eyes of Allah, this [all this showcasing] is but in vain.
Through your own actions, you have distanced yourselves from the
divine teachings. What hypocrisy! Insha-Allah,
next week I shall expound on the same subject.
So,
we pray (make duahs)
that we do not get such kinds of people in the Jamaat Ul Sahih Al
Islam. May Allah never make such kinds of people prosper and increase
in number, and never let them scot-free when they indulge in
“Ghibbat”,
“Tajassus”,
jealousy, lies and blames. On the contrary, we want a Jamaat which
constitutes of the Muttaquun
(the God-fearing, righteous, pious people), those who have strong
fear of Allah in their hearts, in our hearts, so that we do not
commit such heinous deeds which can attract the wrath of Allah upon
us.
May
Allah make the people who integrate the Jamaat Ul Sahih Al Islam work
hard for their own reform. We do not want quantity – lots of
people, we want only quality – believers who are true and good and
who want to reform themselves so that they become SAHIH
Muslimeen (believers),
and not those who only integrate the Divine Manifestation like this
without making the efforts to reform themselves and to become that
true model which Allah wants you to become. Ameen,
Summa Ameen, Ya Rabbul Aalameen !
----Friday Sermon of 20
September 2019~ 20
Muharram 1441 AH delivered by Imam- Jamaat Ul Sahih Al Islam Hadhrat Muhyi-ud-Din Al Khalifatullah Munir Ahmad Azim Saheb (atba) of Mauritius.