ভূমিকা

Certainly Allah is the One who is Oft-Turning to you in repentance, the Merciful . ” In this part of the verse, one of the worst ethical traits has been mentioned. This destructive trait is regarded as being so despicable and appalling that the Qur’an offers a comparison as it has never done before by stating that speaking bad about someone behind his back is just like eating the flesh of one’s dead brother!

The most disgraceful act that can be done is that a person attacks the body of a dead person, and it is especially bad if the deceased happens to be his own brother, and even more so if his method of attack is that he begins to eat from his flesh! This action is so despised and wicked that very few people would ever do such a thing. Why has backbiting and talking bad about others behind their back been compared to eating the flesh of one’s deceased brother?

It is possible that it is for this reason that such a person who eats the flesh of his own brother and the one who back-bites other people destroy the respect and honour of that person. The indecency of this act is divided such that both people – the one who is speaking the bad words and the one who is listening to them - are both classified as launching an attack against a person who is not able to defend himself.

The one person is eating the flesh of a dead person who is unable to defend himself, while the other person (who is listening to such talk) is aiding in the attack on someone who is not present in the gathering so as to be able to defend himself. Thus, to attack a person who does not have the ability to defend himself is something that is considered as a shameful act.

In other words, the Qur’an draws this similitude and parable that the one who talks bad about a person behind his back is equivalent to the one who eats the flesh of his own deceased brother. Thus, the following four points have been taken into consideration: One’s religious brother is the same as one’s biological brother.