WhatsApp Groups, Rumours and Backbiting: What Does Islam Say?

It's 6 p.m., traffic is gridlocked on Avenue Cheikh Anta Diop. Your phone buzzes: the family group is on fire. A cousin allegedly refused a marriage, another supposedly embezzled money. Everyone chimes in. Within minutes, a reputation is built or destroyed, without proof, without perspective. What we experience there is not trivial: the sacred texts warn us against the lightness of our tongues.

The Quran reminds us that spreading unverified information is not just entertainment. It describes those who, hearing slander, should have exclaimed: this is not for us to speak of, it is a grave accusation. But too often, we forward without thinking, out of curiosity or a desire to fill the conversation. Yet the teaching is clear: verify before acting, lest you cause harm and regret it.

Backbiting and suspicion are also condemned. The Quran compares the backbiter to someone who would eat the flesh of his dead brother: a powerful image to make us grasp the seriousness of our words. It invites us to avoid assumptions, not to spy on others' lives, and not to spread gossip. In our groups, how many times have we shared a screenshot or a voice note without thinking of the consequences?