Belittling People

The Messenger of Allah (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said: “It is sufficiently wicked for someone to belittle his fellow Muslim.” [Tirmidhi]

One day a man said to Imam Abu Hanifah, “Sir, people go about saying so many bad things about you, but one has never heard an ill word from your lips.” The Imam observed, “This is God’s grace. He grants it to whomever He likes.” On somebody telling Sufyan Thauri that he had never heard Abu Hanifah slander anybody, Sufyan said, “Abu Hanifah is not such a fool as to ruin all his good deeds.”

Imam Abu Hanifah always avoided speaking ill of people behind their backs and would often thank God for saving his tongue from being contaminated with this evil. [Sirat-i-Numan]