In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Ever Merciful…

The great scholar, Shaykh ‘Abdul-‘Azeez ibn Baaz (may Allah have Mercy on him), stated:

From what is necessary to avoid, be distant from, and warn against is nameemah, which is narrating [negative] speech from one person to another, one group to another, or one tribe to another, with the intention of causing corruption or clashes between them.

It [nameemah] is to expose what is disliked to be known, whether the one being quoted is the one who dislikes it, or the one being informed, or even if some third party dislikes it. It does not matter whether it is exposed verbally, in writing, or by gestures and signals. It does not matter whether words or actions are reported. It does not matter if that [report] is about someone’s [actual] faults or deficiencies, or not. A person must remain silent about all things he sees from the situations of people, except when sharing such a thing would benefit some Muslim or repel some harm.

What causes nameemah is either ill-intent for the one he speaks about or an attempt to show affinity for the person he shares with, or maybe just indulging in idle conversation, chatting away about useless things or falsehood. All of that is Continue reading →