What is the explanation of the Hadith: "Indeed, the worst people in rank before Allah on the Day of Resurrection are those whom people abandoned due to fear of their evil," especially if the oppressor avoids the oppressed out of fear that the oppressed might be someone whose evil is to be feared?

The aforementioned hadith was narrated by Al-Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud, Ibn Hibban, and others. Jurists have derived from it the permissibility of backbiting an open transgressor (fasiq) and warning against him. Al-Qurtubi mentioned that the hadith permits backbiting someone who openly commits transgression, obscenity, or injustice in judgment, or who calls to innovation, along with the permissibility of appeasing them to guard against their evil, as long as this does not lead to compromising Allah’s religion. As for the oppressor’s belief that he is warding off the evil of the oppressed, this holds no weight, for the oppressor is the sinner whose evil people must guard against, while the oppressed is the one with a right, and what matters are the realities.