Cure for gheebat

Question

Is there any easy way of stopping Gheebat/backbiting which has become a habit for many? Answer: ﺑﺴﻢ اﷲ اﻟﺮﺣﻤﻦ اﻟﺮﺣﯿﻢ In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful 1) A person should ponder that by backbiting, he is making himself vulnerable to the anger of Allah (SWT). 2) He should ponder that he is destroying his good deeds through backbiting; on the day of judgment, his good deeds will be transferred to the one whom he backbit due to violating his honor. If he does not possess any good deeds, the evil deeds of the one whom he backbit will be transferred to him. The good deed that he loses due to backbiting is so crucial because it may be his means of salvation. 3) One should continuously remind themself that backbiting is equivalent to eating the flesh of a brother’s corpse. (Surah Al-Hujurat: Verse 12) 4) We need to remind ourselves of our countless shortcomings and sins and occupy ourselves in rectifying them. This will divert our attention from finding faults in others which ultimately leads to backbiting them. 5) We must know that just how we would dislike others to backbite us, others feel the same. Hence, we should love for our brothers what we love for ourselves and refrain from backbiting. 6) One should search for the cause of backbiting (e.g., anger, jealousy, etc.) and work hard to uproot it, for verily, the cure for an effect is to get rid of its cause. 7) Remain in the company of the pious who do not backbite others, you will aquire their good qualities. 8) Read the stories of the pious and see how they valued their time and refrained from useless speech let alone backbiting. 9) Continuously remain engaged in the remembrance of Allah (SWT).

Ihya Al-Uloom Ad-Deen: v. 3, p. 148-149 (Darul M’arifah)

Only Allah knows best

Written by Maulana Mohammad Ahsan Osmani Checked and approved by Mufti Mohammed Tosir Miah

Darul Ifta Birmingham