Q.1. Could you please explain the Islamic view about those spreading tales against people so as to cause problems between them.
Q.2. Some people suggest that for a woman to darken her eyebrows with a pencil is forbidden in the same way as thinning her eyebrows. Please comment.
Imran Ahmad
A.1. Backbiting is strongly forbidden, as it is universally known. God says in the Qur’an: “And do not spy on one another, nor backbite one another. Would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? Surely you would loathe it.” (49: 12) This horrid picture is drawn in the Qur’an for someone who is guilty of backbiting, which is defined in Islam as “saying about someone in his absence what he dislikes to be said about him.” This applies even if what is being said is true. The very fact that he is absent and people say about him things that he dislikes to be talked about is backbiting, and falls within what is described in the Qur’an as “eating the flesh of one’s dead brother.”
A similar social evil is to spread defamatory tales about other people. This is what happens when someone tells another a tale about a third person who is known to both. This is shown in the Qur’an as repugnant. It occurs within the denunciation of a particular person who took a hostile attitude to Islam and the Prophet. Exposing his character, the Qur’an mentions this action of his as a most horrid one: “Do not pay any respect to the contemptible swearer of oaths, the slanderer who goes about with defaming tales, the withholder of good, the sinful aggressor, cruel, possessed by greed...” (68: 10-13) It is clear that the person concerned had had a very abominable character. One of his qualities was to carry such tales.
In order to describe how repugnant this quality is we may mention that the Prophet once passed by two graves, and he placed some green branches on them. He told his companions who were with him that the two people buried there were suffering torment. He said that the reason for punishing one of them was that he used to spread defamatory tales about his fellow men.
People often ask about the punishment that a certain sin incurs. We cannot specify unless there is some text to outline it. However, we can say that such a person commits a sin against society in addition to his slandering of particular people. Thus his sin will not be forgiven by God unless the people against whom he spread such tales forgive him. On the Day of Judgment he will be brought face to face with them, and they will be given some of his deeds in lieu of the injury he caused them. If he does not have sufficient good deeds to compensate them, he is made to bear some of their bad deed, which are then removed from them and added against him.
Therefore, people should guard against doing any such action by avoiding speaking ill about anyone in their absence. If one knows some defect in a person’s character, or of a bad deed that person has committed, he should keep it secret. He is rewarded for that.
A.2. Darkening one’s eyebrows is not in any way similar to thinning them or changing their shape as women do these days. When a woman uses a cosmetic pencil for this purpose, the result is clear. There is no deception in what she does.
She does not change the way God has created her. She is only using some temporary coloring, and this is permissible, unless she does it with the intention of attracting men’s eyes. In this case, it is the intention that makes the difference.
