Backbiting and Gossip Forbidden
Speaking ill of others behind their backs is one of the most destructive spiritual habits, poisoning both speaker and community.
Bahá'u'lláh declared backbiting the most grievous of sins — more damaging than many obvious wrongs because it destroys community trust from within while appearing harmless. Even if what is said is true, speaking of others' faults behind their backs violates dignity and spreads negativity. The Bahá'í is to see others' virtues, not their faults.
Backbiting quencheth the light of the heart and extinguisheth the life of the soul.
The Bahá'í prohibition of backbiting has deep parallels in Jewish halacha on lashon hara (evil tongue) and Islamic teachings on gheeba (backbiting).
Kitáb-i-Íqán
Written about in
- What the Bahá'í Faith says about community
Speaking ill of an absent person is named as one of the most destructive habits, said to quench the light of the heart. In a community that governs itself, this is infrastructure rather than etiquette.
- What the Bahá'í Faith says about what to say and what to leave unsaid
This is the hard limit, and it is unusually strict: accuracy does not license it. Bahá'u'lláh's reasoning is that the damage is to trust rather than to facts, which is why a true report of an absent person's fault is still forbidden and the believer is asked to look for virtues instead.