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Backbiting Other Teachers and Students

Question:

Some of my co-workers gossip instantly about teachers and students in the school. I advised them to stop on more than one occasion, and I tried to be very positive in my advice, but it would not take long before they returned to the same deed. What should I do, and am I sinning for being with them?
Answer:

As long as you are giving advice to them, as long as you are warning them against backbiting, you are doing well. If they accept your advice, they will share in the good you are doing; if not, then only you are doing what is right and for them is the sin they perpetrate.
Nevertheless, you must continue to advise them - even if they continually repeat the deed. When you frequently give advice and invite them to remember Allaah, maybe the people you are advising will eventually stop and repent for their sins.

Furthermore, they as well as others are obligated to protect their tongues for unlawful speech. They should be reminded that if they do not stop backbiting, the people they are backbiting will take from their good deeds on the Day of Judgement; if the good deeds aren't enough, then the backbiter will have to take the burden of some of their bad deeds.

Shaykh Muhammad bin Saalih al-`Uthaymeen
Fatawa Islamiyah, vol.8, p.118, DARUSSALAAM

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