ভূমিকা

Would he like to cut his dear brother’s flesh with a knife or with his own teeth and chew it or devour it? Imagine this scene. Can anyone ever like this gruesome deed! Doubtlessly, it is an extremely abhorring thought. Eating corpse is the deed of a vulture and of a dog. God desired that no corpse should remain lying on the surface of the earth so that the earth may be clean for habitation of mankind. A man does not do this.

This is an example for making people detest backbiting and for explaining the facts of the other world. Comparing backbiting with eating of dead God says that backbiting is like eating the flesh of a corpse. To deprive one of his honor or respect is just like snatching his flesh. It is mentioned in a narration that if someone disrupts the talk of others and does not allow him to speak a word, it is just like piercing claws into someone’s face and scratching flesh off his face.

The honor, which you snatched is like blood, flesh and skin. By backbiting him you have snatched flesh from his face. Being dead is in the sense of being unaware. The poor fellow is sitting in his house and does not know that you are snatching away his honor. He is in the dark. He does not know so that he may defend himself. He is just like a dead person who cannot defend himself! Collective benefit Another comparison is with “brother’s flesh.” God says: O People!

Do not harm yourselves by yourselves. Do not clash with one another in this wild way. This snatching of the flesh of one another!