ভূমিকা

With my isnad going back to Thiqat al-Islam wa al-Muslimin Muhammad ibn Ya’qub al-Kulayni (R) from ‘Ali ibn Ibrahim, from his father, from al-Nawfali, from al-Sakkuni, from Abu ‘Abd Allah (A) that he said: The Messenger of Allah (S) said, “The havoc wrought by ghibah (backbiting) on the believer’s faith is swifter than the one wrought by the disease of aklah in the side of his body.” The Imam (A) said: The Messenger of Allah (S) said, “To sit in the mosque waiting for the (time of) prayer is worship, so long as one does not commit a misdeed.” He (S) was asked, “O Messenger of Allah, what misdeed?” He replied, “Backbiting.[^1] Exposition Ghibah is the masdar (verbal noun) of ghaba and also that of ightiyab, as mentioned in the dictionaries.

The researcher and traditionist al-Majlisi (M) states that this meaning is a literal one. But, apparently, the author of al-Sihah has given the technical ( istilahi ) meaning, not the literal one, because this is not the literal meaning of ghaba, ightaba and other related derivatives. Rather, their meaning is of a more general character. The lexicographers occasionally give the technical or Shar’i meanings in their works. The author of al-Qamus is quoted to have taken ghaba to signify ‘aba.