---
layout: post
published: true
publisher: alsalafiyyah@icloud.com
title: "Categorizing Those Who Speak Against People of Authority"
hijri: "Muharram 27, 1446 AH"
date: 2024-08-02
active: audios
category: [fatwas,audios,rulership,sects]
summary: "These people fall into two categories: Either they are Kharijites who promote the ideology of the Khawarij"
mp3: https://www.alfawzan.af.org.sa/sites/default/files/6594.mp3
muftis:
  shaykh: 
    - name: Shaykh Salih Al-Fawzan
      url: /biography/fawzan/
--- 

### Question: 

This [questioner] asks: What should our stance be toward those who speak ill of the [Muslim] rulers and the scholars? And if they are among our brothers, is it sufficient to boycott them, or must we report them?

### Answer: 

These people fall into two categories: Either they are Kharijites who promote the ideology of the Khawarij; in this case, beware of them and warn others against them. Beware of them and warn others against them. 

Or, they are people of Ghibah (backbiting) and Namima (slanderous gossip). They are not Kharijites, but they are backbiters and slanderers. They 'eat the flesh of people'—we seek refuge in Allah from that. 

Backbiting is an evil, as the Prophet ﷺ said when explaining the verse: **'And do not backbite one another.'** (Al-Hujurat [49]:12), he said: **'Backbiting is to mention your brother with something he dislikes.'** Someone asked: **'O Messenger of Allah, what if what I say about my brother is true?'** He replied: **'If it is true, then you have backbitten him, and if it is not true, then you have slandered (maligned) him'** — meaning you lied about him. Thus, the backbiter is never free from sin.

He is either a liar or a backbiter who 'eats the flesh' of people. And 'eating the flesh' of the scholars and the rulers is even more severe because of the consequences: the splitting of unity and the cultivation of suspicion toward the rulers and the scholars. This results in ill-will and division among the Muslims.

​Therefore, these individuals are either Khawarij or people of backbiting and slander. It is not permissible to sit with them, except for the purpose of offering sincere advice (Nasiha), in the hope that they might abandon this behavior.