What is backbiting (ghībah), and is it ever permitted?

From the Sabīl library · scholarly review pending

Each answer is an entry of the Sabīl library, shown word for word with its sources. Nobody wrote it for the question, and no machine wrote, shortened or reworded it: the question was matched to the entry that answers it. The library’s scholarly review is still pending. Where the schools differ, the entry says what each holds. For a ruling on your own circumstances, ask a scholar.

05The tongue

Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day, let him speak good or keep silent.

Bukhārī, Muslim · ṣaḥīḥ

Ghībah — backbiting

To mention your brother with what he would dislike. Asked “and if it is true of him?” — he ﷺ said: if it is true, you have backbitten him; if false, you have slandered him.

Muslim · ṣaḥīḥ; Q 49:12

Permitted only in: seeking redress before one able to give it, seeking a ruling, warning a Muslim of real harm, naming one who sins openly, and identification where no other means exists.

Namīmah — talebearing

Carrying words between people to spoil what is between them. “The talebearer will not enter Paradise.” If it reaches you, do not believe it, do not pass it on, and do not think ill of the one reported against.

Bukhārī, Muslim · ṣaḥīḥ

Also of the tongue: lying, false oaths, mockery, insulting names, arguing for its own sake, and boasting. Jesting is permitted — he ﷺ jested, and said only what was true.

Q 49:11; Tirmidhī · ṣaḥīḥ

From Adab & Akhlāq · Open the full title

This is what the library says in general. It is not a ruling on your own case: for that, ask a scholar.

Answered from

Adab & Akhlāq