Chapter: Situations in Which Backbiting Is Permissible

Be aware that backbiting is allowed only for a sound, legally recognized purpose that cannot be achieved without it. Those purposes fall under six headings:

1. Lodging a grievance (tazallum). The person who has been wronged may present his complaint to the ruler, the judge, or anyone else who possesses authority or power to secure justice, saying, for example, “So-and-so has wronged me in such-and-such a manner.”

2. Seeking assistance in removing an evil and restoring a wrongdoer to what is right. One may therefore say to someone capable of eliminating the offense, “So-and-so is doing such-and-such; stop him,” and the like. The sole intention must be to eradicate the evil; if that is not the motive, the act is forbidden.

3. Requesting a legal verdict (istiftāʾ). A person may say to a mufti, “My father, brother, husband, or So-and-so has treated me unjustly in this way—does he have the right to do that? How can I free myself from it, obtain my rightful due, and avert the injustice?” and similar questions. This is permissible when needed, yet it is safer and better to phrase it impersonally: “What is your opinion regarding a man, or a person, or a husband whose situation is such-and-such?”—for the aim is met without naming anyone. Even so, specifying the individual is permissible, as we shall see in the ḥadith of Hind, God willing.

4. Warning Muslims against harm and offering them sincere counsel. One aspect of this is declaring the unreliability of narrators or witnesses whose credibility has been impugned; this is unanimously agreed to be permissible.