Backbiting, creating rumors sins that eliminate spirit of fasting - says outstanding Shia scholar

(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Speaking at Esfahan’s Hakim Mosque after noon prayers on Tuesday, Ayatollah Hoseyn Mazaheri said that some sins do not invalidate one’s fast during the holy month of Ramadhan but eliminate the spirit of this act and said, “Backbiting and creating rumours are among these sins, if someone says something behind a person’s back and if that person becomes upset from such statements, this is backbiting and such a person will loose the spirit of fasting.”

Expressing that gossiping is also one of the great sins, the head of the Islamic Seminary of Esfahan added, “In the Event of Ifk [Accusation], the Holy Quran states that if someone seeks to create rumours, it is possible he may reach the point where he will create rumours about the Prophet Muhammad and spread the words of the enemies and they suppose that this is nothing, while this is a very big thing. ‘…While it was a grave [matter] with God.’” [Quran 24:15]

The Event of Ifk refers to an event in the history of early Islam to which the verses 11-26 of Surah al-Nur refer. This event took place in 5 AH/626 CE, when a group of people accused a Muslim of adultery, who was, as famously narrated, Aishah, the Prophet Muhammad’s wife. In the mentioned verses, God blames people for slandering and spreading rumours.

Ayatollah Mazaheri noted, “In the Event of Ifk and in the issue of creating rumours, God will negate the spreading of rumours through the tongue of the companions. This is a great sin and on the Day of Resurrection, God will gather the perpetrator with the enemies. Man supposes that this is nothing. With the words ‘they say’ or ‘it has been said,’ he intentionally prolongs the rumour, while it is a great sin.”

Saying that the sin of spreading rumours is considered as cooperation with the enemies, His Eminence stated, “If the companion did not spread the abusive words of the enemies, the actions of the enemies would not have had an effect. The effect of the actions of the enemies is in your hands and that which he wants and that which he has accused you of was spread among the people through you. The enemies achieved the results of their actions and the rumourmongers will be gathered with the enemies of Islam on the Day of Resurrection.”

Ayatollah Mazaheri said, “You must know that some of the statements that are spread on social media, the internet and various sites today, have been falsified by the enemies to undermine the Islamic Republic and this is an arena of soft war which is worse than armed warfare. The purpose of this soft war is to defame Islam and to accuse the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

The senior Iranian cleric emphasized that we must understand that we must not accuse the great personalities, Islam and the Islamic Republic of Iran and added, “The Quran says do not suppose that your rumours are not about Islam. In the Event of Ifk, the enemies accused the Prophet Muhammad and his companions  and spread the rumour and the enemies were happy, Islam was damaged, and the Prophet Muhammad became isolated and withdrawn.”




/129