What should we do if we cannot leave a place where people talk about others behind their backs and we have to listen to them?

People talk about others behind their backs in many places and I cannot silence them. I am even criticized because I am against backbiting. For, people cannot find anything to talk about if they do not talk about others behind their backs. To what extent should we show patience? How can we leave the place where our relatives and workmates backbite others? I feel that I start to be on bad terms with my relatives and workmates. I even gave them a piece of writing about backbiting but it was in vain. Neither verses nor hadiths affect them; this is probably what is described as the blackening of the heart.

Dear Brother / Sister,

When you see that you cannot prevent people from backbiting, read the following prayer and leave that place if it is possible:

"Allahummaghfirli wa liman ightabnahu"

"O Allah! Forgive us and the person we backbit.”(Suyuti, al-Fathu’l-Kabir, I/87)

 If you cannot leave that place, you will not be held responsible for the statements including backbiting that you hear involuntarily.

Questions on Islam