and corruption. Otherwise, were people left to say whatever they pleased, enormous harm would follow.

The author supports this ruling with both a Qur’anic verse and a hadith. The verse is the Almighty’s saying, “Do not help one another in sin and aggression” (al-Māʾidah 2). A form of such cooperation in sin and aggression is to carry people’s statements—or the words of a specific individual—to the authorities when no public need requires it, for this may, as we noted, prompt the rulers to mistreat that person without any legitimate cause.

The hadith is the report of Ibn Masʿūd, may Allah be pleased with him: the Prophet ﷺ said, “Let no one convey to me anything about anyone, for I love to come out to you with a heart free of rancor.” This was part of the Messenger’s wisdom: he did not want people’s talk relayed to him lest something lodge in his heart against the speaker; he preferred to meet them with a sound heart. How often a person loves and esteems someone, thinking him noble and upright, yet when something negative is passed on about that man, he comes to dislike him, shun him, and even hate him.

Nonetheless—as we said at the beginning—if the public interest demands that we speak, then we must speak, so that evil and corruption do not spread and trials do not arise. Allah alone grants success.