Sunday, October 13, 2013

The Dangers of Backbiting & Slandering



Do you know who is the one who is a bankrupt person? And the companions respond saying, 'he is one who does not having any gold or silver. In our terms, one with no cash, he's a cashless person and perhaps, he owes people so much. So the Messenger said No! A true bankrupt person is he who comes on the Day of Judgment with a lot of good deeds next to his name, a lot of good deeds. For example, he would have salah; he would have lots of salah. Perhaps, he might have salah in the masjid with jama'ah in the first line and perhaps, he might not have missed his tilaawah or recitation of the Quran. Perhaps, he might have engaged in lots of remembrance of Allah. Perhaps, he might given out lots of charities. Perhaps, he might have gone for hajj and he might have fasted in the month of ramadan and he might have engaged in the voluntary fast. Now these are all signs of what we would term a pious person. 

Today, my beloved brothers and sisters, piety has become an item and an issue that people gage by looking at the outward appearance of an individual, not realizing that the true root of piety is the Heart. It begins to show outwardly, correct, but not necessarily everyone who looks outwardly pious is actually internally pious and not everyone who looks outwardly impious would be internally...in the same. May Allah (subahaanahu wa ta'ala) grant us the rectification of both, the internal as well as the external. So...they would be people who have come with lots of good deeds, many good deeds, but, when he comes, he would have slander this one, he would have backbitten this one, he would have usurped the wealth of this one, he would have wronged this one, he would have sworn-ed the other. 'Shatam' means, one who abuses verbally the others. 

Today we abuse those who work for us, we abuse our colleagues, we abuse our children, we abuse our spouses, we abuse our parents, verbally. How dare we do that, when we are looking forward for the day we meet our Maker. How do you think it would be, when we present our swear words, in front of the Almighty and say, 'Ya Allah, when I was in the world, you give me one chance and here you are, Ya Allah these are the words I used to use.' Authubillah! May the Almighty protect us from the devil. So the devil comes to us, and he make us harm someone, backbite someone. 

For your information, brothers and sisters, backbiting is so dangerous that today we are living in an age of backbiting and people do not understand the meaning of backbiting because when you say my brother, my sister do not talk about this person bad, because they are not here. They will tell you, 'but what I am saying is true' - that shows the height of ignorance, because the Messenger () has explained very clearly, that when you are speaking the truth about someone else in their absence, in a way that they would not like it if they were present, that is known as backbiting. So to speak a lie is actually worse, so if you want to know what is backbiting, brothers and sisters, it is to speak the truth about someone in their absence in a way that if they were there, they would not like it, may the Almighty forgive us all (Ameen!).

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