has erred. Hence He attributes backbiting to us, saying, “Let not some of you backbite others” [al-Hujurat 49:12]. He makes us one constitution possessing parts, for division and differentiation apply only to a whole. We have not gone outside ourselves or attacked any but ourselves, so He made the matter severe for us.
The person who kills himself is forbidden the Garden, which conceals, for a thing does not conceal itself from itself. Whoever mentions an absent person makes him witnessed and estranges him from his homeland. A stranger’s death is martyrdom, so the backbiter does good to the one he backbites, even though he dislikes it. There is benefit within it, like one drinking bitter medicine: “You may dislike a thing while it is good for you” [al-Baqara 2:216].
When he does good without intending it, he is among those through whose hands God brings good to Zayd. His recompense is that of someone granted success in doing good without intending it for the one he backbites. Yet it is intended by the One who inspired it, who names it depravity in his case. God therefore reconciles His servants on the Day of Resurrection, because the wronged person sees the good reaching him through his brother’s hands and gives him gratitude for it. Both attain felicity. In the sound report, “Be wary of God and set right what is between you” [al-Anfal 8:1], “for God reconciles His servants on the Day of Resurrection.”
Although backbiting is blameworthy, from this aspect it is praiseworthy for the one backbitten. The outcome
Notes
Translator’s note TN4102-1: Witnessing and martyrdom share shahada. The argument links bringing an absent person into witnessing with the stranger’s martyrdom and consequent benefit. It continues to call backbiting blameworthy while describing benefit for the person wronged and eventual reconciliation.
