Behaviors that Destroy Social Capital
If trust is lost, the society will be prone to all kind of harms that could undermine its very foundation.
But what factors can undermine trust and destroy this social capital?
One of them is backbiting. It is a grave sin that Hadiths have strongly warned against. Backbiting means talking maliciously about someone who is not present.
The Quran cites an example to demonstrate how bad backbiting is. God says in Verse 12 of Surah Al-Hujurat: “Believers, abstain from most suspicion, some suspicion is a sin. Neither spy nor backbite one another would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? Surely, you would loathe it. Fear Allah, without doubt Allah turns (in mercy) and He is the Merciful.”
In this verse, God likens backbiting to eating the flesh of one’s dead brother. This is because one who is the subject of backbiting is absent and cannot defend himself, just as a dead person can’t.
A person who engages in backbiting is a weak and naïve person who lacks the courage to face issues and therefore attacks his dead brother.
One who gets used to backbiting also becomes suspicious of all people and spends all of his energy and time for discovering others’ dark points in order to be able to tarnish their image.
This way, he undermines public trust and erodes the foundations of the society.
Usually, a person who speaks ill of others in your presence is very likely to speak ill of you in your absence as well. That is why religious teachings urge us not to listen to backbiting and not to allow anyone to do it in our presence.
The main healing for any physical, mental or moral ailment is finding the root cause of the illness and removing it. The root causes of backbiting are issues like envy, hate, conceit, selfishness, and malice, and if these bad traits are not uprooted, one cannot hope to be able to abandon backbiting.
