A man, who commits adultery, may repent and God may accept...

A man, who commits adultery, may repent and God may accept his repentance, but one who backbites will not be forgiven unless the one who has been backbitten will forgive him.”[^2] The Messenger of Allah (SAW) has been reported by Imam Ali (AS) as saying: “Paradise is forbidden for three groups of people: those who often remind others of the favors they do to them, those who backbite, and those who drink wine.”[^3] The Holy Prophet (SAW) has also been reported as saying: “Will anything throw people into fire on their face except the results of their tongues?” ^4 The Messenger of Allah (SAW) has said: “To abandon backbiting is better than ten thousands of recommended prayers for God.”[^5] Imam Reza (AS) has been reported as saying: “God revealed the following to one of his prophets: ‘When you get up in the morning, eat the first thing you see, conceal the second thing you see, receive the third thing you see, do not disappoint the fourth thing you see, and escape from the fifth one.” When the morning came, the first thing the prophet saw was a big black mountain.

He said to himself: ‘God Almighty has ordered me to eat it.’ However, he wondered how he could do that. Then, he said to himself: ‘My Lord does not order anything that I cannot do.’ So, he started to walk to the mountain. The nearer he walked toward the mountain, the smaller became the mountain until it became like a morsel. So he ate it up. It was the most delicious morsel. He walked on until he reached a tub of gold.

He said to himself: ‘My Lord has told me to cover it.’ He dug a ditch and buried it. When he walked away, he found out that the tub was out. He said to himself: ‘I did what My Lord had ordered.’ He walked further away when he saw a bird with a hawk behind it. He said to himself: ‘My Lord has told me to receive it.’ He let his sleeve open and the bird went into it.

The hawk said: ‘Did you catch my bird while I was after it for several days?’ The prophet said to himself: ‘My Lord has told me not to disappoint it.’ So he cut off the leg of the bird and threw it to the hawk. He walked further when he reached stinking corpse. He said to himself: ‘My Lord has ordered me to escape from it.’ So he escaped from it and returned to where he was. In his dream, it was said to him: ‘You did what I had ordered.

Do you know the story?’ The prophet said: ‘No.’ It was said to him: ‘As for the mountain, it is anger. A servant, who gets angry, cannot see himself because of the intensity of his anger.