Backbiting is talking about someone. The fact that what is talked about does not interest the person one is talking to or whether what one says is true or not does not change the act of backbiting. If what is said is a lie, then it is both backbiting and slandering. If what is said is true, it is backbiting. In talebearing, what is said interests the person that one is talking to, such as: "He said this or that about you or he did this or that against you”. It does not matter whether the person one is talking to is an ordinary person or an important person with authority. Accordingly, informants and informers are also talebearers.
In Arabic, or to put it better, in hadiths, two different words are used for the concept talebearing: namima and qatt. A person who does it is called a nammam or qattat. Although Sufyan considers qattat to be synonymous with nammam (Tirmidhi, Birr wa Sila, 78), Hafiz al-Mundhiri says those two words have different meanings. According to him, nammam is a person who reports what he himself has seen or heard to the relevant person. Qattat is someone who reports the words that he has heard from others (Targhib wa Tarhib, trns. A.M.Büyükçınar, V, 386). [1]
Mostly women are seen engaged in acts of backbiting and talebearing and unfortunately this phenomenon is all over the world irrespective of the religion and social etiquettes. While we talk ill or bad of someone with no intention of harming, yet is a least liked. But when the intention of deceit and harming someone is added, it becomes one of the grave sins that may block our entrance to Jannah. We thus need to take heed to the above said Prophetic caution and remain from such ills.
This hadith can be correlated with another Hadith already shared as: Who will be the worst people in the sight of Allah on Day of Resurrection (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: Hadith 6058)
May Allāh (سبحانه و تعالى) help us understand Qur'ān and follow the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, which is embodiment of commandments of Allah contained in the Qur'ān. May Allah help us to be like the ones He loves and let our lives be lived helping others and not making others' lives miserable or unlivable. May all our wrong doings, whether intentional or unintentional, be forgiven before the angel of death knocks on our door.
Please refer to our reference page: Sunnah and Hadith of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ to know more about sunnah of Prophet of Allah. You may also refer to our Reference Pages for knowing more about Islam and Qur'ān.
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