Islam assigns great importance to preserving people’s honor and guarding them against any malicious defamation and slander. It is in this light that Islam prohibits backbiting and gives serious warning against it. Allah says: [And spy not, neither backbite one another. Would one of you love to eat the flesh of his dead brother? Ye abhor that (so abhor the other)](Al-Hujurat 49:12).
Sheikh Muhammad Nur Abdullah, President of ISNA (the Islamic Society of North America) and member of the Fiqh Council of North America, states the following: Backbiting is haram for any human. For the dead, we are commanded to refrain from talking bad about them unless they are so evil and they were openly sinners and enemies of Islam such as Pharoah, Namrud and Abu Jahl. Mentioning their evil deeds is meant only to warn the people and not for the purpose of backbiting. And as for children, we should also not backbite or slander them either.