Have you noticed how often people talk about someone when that person isn’t there? Have your parents ever told you, “If you don’t have something nice to say about someone, say nothing at all!” Still, some people talk about others behind their back. This can also be called “backbiting.” Doing this to someone is more dreadful than people can even guess. Perhaps they forget that in the Quran, God says that backbiting is the same as eating that person’s dead flesh. Isn’t that a sickening image? Wouldn’t you feel terribly sick if you did that? Why do you think God uses such a horrible idea to explain why we should never, ever gossip?
