Some jurists would perform ablution after backbiting, just as they would perform ablution after they released impurities from their bodies.  Improve your secret and private life, and Allah will improve your public and social life.  Make matters well between you and Allah, and Allah will make matters well between you and people.  Work for the Hereafter, and Allah will be enough for you in your worldly concerns.  Purchase the Hereafter, and use this worldly life as a method of payment for your purchase, and as a result, you will gain profit both in this world and in the Hereafter.  But do not purchase this world at the cost of the Hereafter, for if you do so, you will lose out on both worlds.

—Sufyān al-Thawrī [d. 161H/778CE]

(Read on pg 174-175, Salaahud-Deen ibn ‘Alee ibn ‘Abdul-Maujood, The Biography of Sufyaan Ath-Thauree. Darussalam Publishers. Riyadh:2005.)