1313 – Hudhayfah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ declared, “A tale-bearer shall not enter Paradise.” Agreed upon. (1)
Vocabulary of the ḥadīth
qattāt: From qattaʿa al-aḥādītha yaquttuhā qattan – to disseminate people’s conversations. A qattāt (with a fatḥah and doubled tāʾ) is the nammām: one who conveys the words of an individual or a group to another individual or group in a spirit of malicious gossip, seeking to ruin relations between them.
Points derived from the ḥadīth
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The qattāt is the nammām who ferries people’s speech from one party to another in order to sow discord and kindle enmity and hatred. The graver the consequences and the greater the danger, the heavier the sin and the more heinous the crime; therefore, tale-bearing among relatives, kin, friends, and neighbors is worse than among those who are distant from one another.
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Namīmah (malicious gossip) ranks among the major sins because of the harm it causes and the dire outcomes it brings about. Al-Munadhirī stated: “The ummah is unanimously agreed that namīmah is forbidden and that it is one of the most serious sins in the sight of Allah.”
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The scriptural texts concerning namīmah are daunting. Allah the Exalted says: “Those who harm believing men and believing women without their having earned it have burdened themselves with slander and a manifest sin” (Al-Aḥzāb 33:58). Al-Bukhārī (218) and Muslim (292) also record, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, that the Prophet ﷺ passed by two graves and said, “They are being punished, yet they are not being punished for something that was difficult to avoid. As for one of them—”