Muwatta 2823

Malik transmits from al-Walid ibn Abdallah ibn Sayyad, that al-Muttalib ibn Abdallah ibn Hanatib al-Makhzumi told him that a man asked the Prophet ﷺ: what is backbiting? He said: that you mention of a person what he dislikes to hear. He said: Messenger of God, even if it is true? He said: if you say something false, that is slander. The editor notes Ibn Abd al-Barr's view that the correct name of the narrator is Hanatib, not Huwaytib as in Yahya's transmission, and that the hadith is connected through al-Ala ibn Abd al-Rahman from his father from Abu Hurayra (may God be pleased with him) in Muslim and elsewhere. ¹

Belongs to the Muwatta, Book of Comprehensive Matters (al-Jami). Source: the Muwatta. Mentions Malik ibn Anas, Walid ibn Abdallah ibn Sayyad, al-Muttalib ibn Abdallah ibn Hanatib.