Aslam

. re(juent an innovator and fear this influence on him, it is lawful disclosed his innovation and sin, but not for any other cause, cjfnilarly if a man wants to engage a servant or to buy a slave, it is lawful to disclose his innovation and sin, but not for any other cause. Similarly if a man wants to engage a servant or to buy a slave/ it is lawful to disclose his bad habi t of theft or other crimes, if a man is cited as a witness by an innocent man, he may disclose the fault of his adversary. The prophet said: Do you consider bad to disclose the faults of a sinner? Disclose his faults so that people may know them. Disclose the faults in him, so that people may take precaution. The ancient sages said: There is no sin in disclosing the guilts of three persons - (1) a tyrant ruler, (2) a learned innovator, (3) and a shameless evil doer.

(5) To call by a well-known surname. There is no back-biting jf a man is called by his well known surname, such as a lame man, a blind man. This is for identification and not from any evil

motive.

(6) To disclose bad deed of an evil doer. To disclose the guilts of those who are accustomed to evil deeds openly is no sin, such as a male wearing female dress, a drunkard, a fornicator, or an oppressor. The Prophet said : There is no sin in back-biting a person who has shaken off the screen of shame from his face.
Hazrat Omar said : There is no honour for a great sinner (meaning those who commit major sins openly). He who commits sins secretly should have the honour of his fault being kept secret. Hazrat Hasan Basari said : There is no fault in back-biting three persons — (1) one who is a slave of passion, (2) an open and well known transgressor, (3) and a tyrant ruler.

EXPIATION OF BACK-BITING: There are two modes of expitation of the sin of back-biting. (1) The back-biter will repent sincerelyln mind and will be sorry for that. (2) Then he will seek pardon of the back-bited person being very humble. Hazrat Hasan Basari said : It is sufficient to seek forgivenesses for the back-bited person. There is no necessity to seek his pardon. He gives its support by the following Hadis : To seek forgiveness for one who has been back-bited is expitation of back-biting. The sage Mozahed said : The expitation of eating rotten flesh of your brother is to praise him and to pray for his good. To me, it seems that it is not sufficient. One is to seek pardon from the back-bited man in order to get himself absolved from the sin. The Prophet

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1 18 The Book of Destructive evils Vol-iu