When he comes out from the grave a black serpent will be...

When he comes out from the grave a black serpent will be appointed on him which will continue to chew his flesh till he is made to enter Hell.”[^4] He (S) also says, “When I was on Me’raj (ascension) I saw a woman whose face was that of a pig and body of a donkey and she was being subjected to thousands of punishments.” Someone asked the Prophet (S) what her crime was.

The Prophet (S) replied, “She was tale-teller, a liar.” Wasa’il ul-Shia has recorded twelve traditions that prove tale-telling is Harām . All these traditions state that Paradise is forbidden for the tale-tellers. In Surah Humaza, Allah (S.w.T.) says, “Wael (Hell) is for every Slanderer (Humaza), defamer (Lumaza)” (Surah al-Humaza 104: 1) Wael is a level of Hell, it can also be a well situated in Hell. It denotes most severe punishment.

Humaza means tale-telling or slander as clearly mentioned by Shahīd Thani in his book Kashful Rabi. Some scholars have also narrated the tradition that states that a tale-teller is illegitimately born. There is no rain due to Tale-telling When there was drought in Bani Israel, Prophet Mūsa (a.s.) prayed for rain. It was revealed to him: I shall not accept the prayers of your companions and you because there is a tale-teller amongst you who does not abstain from tale-telling.

Mūsa (a.s.) beseeched Allah to tell him the name of that person so that he could be removed from the society. Allah said, “I Myself prohibit tale-telling how can I expose the tale-teller?” On hearing this all of them repented together and the tale-teller also repented with them and finally it rained.[^5] What is Tale-Telling? Shaykh Ansari (r.a.) has written in Makasibul Muhrima that tale-telling is Harām in the light of Qur’an, hadith, Ijma and Aql.

It is reporting a thing a person had said about another. The person who is spoken to, goes on to the one it concerns. The Shaykh also says that till the time the concerned person is prepared to allow the information to be passed on to others, it is Tale-telling as well as Ghiība . The tale-teller would also suffer the punishment for Ghiība . And his punishment will be in proportion to the damage caused by his tale-telling.

Shahīd Thani writes in Kashful Rabi: Tale-telling is exposing the secret of the person who is bad in the eyes of one who utters it or the repetition of it, to whom it was told to another, who further repeats it to still another. They are all equally guilty.