আল-আদাবুল মুফরাদ ৭৩৮

It is reported by Jabir bin Abdullah (ra) that they had accompanied the messenger of Allah when they came to two graves. Both the inmate of the graves were being punished. He said," They are being punished not for committing a grave sin. But, yes! (They are grave sins though on the face of it they are ordinary and it is easy to avoid them but their punishment is severe.) One of them was given to backbite other people while the other was not. Careful to clean himself of urine drops (over his body)". He then asked for one or two branches of fresh date palm and split them and dug them on each grave. He said afterwards," Soon their punishment will be softened as long as the branches are green." Or he said, “Until they dry up.”

It is reported by Abu Hurayrah (ra) that Maiz bin Maalik al-Aslami (ra) came to the Prophet (ﷺ) repeatedly (so that he may be given the prescribed punishment for the sin he had committed). When he came the fourth time, the Prophet (ﷺ) gave orders for Rajam and he was stoned to death. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) and a few of his companions afterwards passed by him. One of the companions remarked," How many times this perished man came to the Prophet, and each time he turned him away until he was stoned like a dog." The Prophet (ﷺ) did not say anything and walked ahead till they came to the corpse of a donkey with its legs in the air. He said,"Eat some of this (corpse)." They asked "Messenger of Allah, from this dead donkey?" He said to them." That you have just backbited your brother is more serious than eating some of it (the donkey's corpse). By him in whose hand the soul of Muhammad is, he (Mariz bin Maalik) is now among the rivers of paradise plunging into it".

It is reported by Qasim bin Abdur Rahman as-Shami that he heard Ibn Unm Abd say, "If a believer is backbitten before someone and he helps the believer (by refuting backbiting) then Allah will reward him well in this world and the next. And, if a believer is backbitten before someone and he does not help him (by not refuting the backbiting) then Allah will give him a bad return for that in this world and the next. Further, if anyone does not take a morsel more than backbiting in his mouth and says that which he knows about him then he has backbitten him but if he says what he does not know about him then he has slandered him.