O You Who Believe

72)

"O you who have believed, let not a people ridicule [another] people; perhaps they may be better than them; nor let women ridicule [other] women; perhaps they may be better than them. And do not insult one another and do not call each other by [offensive] nicknames. Wretched is the name of disobedience after [one’s] faith. And whoever does not repent – then it is those who are the wrongdoers."

[Al-Hujarat 49:11]

The 72nd 'O you who believe' command involves rules for welfare and betterment social relations.

The believers were made to realize that by virtue of the most sacred relationship of the faith they were brothers to one another, and they should fear God and try to keep their mutual relations right. Now, in the following two verses, they are being enjoined to avoid and shun those major evils which generally spoil the mutual relationships of the people in a society. Slandering and taunting the people and harboring suspicions and spying on others are, in fact, the evils that cause mutual enmities and then lead to grave mischief.

Allah the Exalted forbids scoffing at people, which implies humiliating and belittling them. In the Sahih, it is recorded that the Messenger of Allah said:

(Arrogance is refusing the truth and belittling/despising people.)

It is forbidden to scoff at and belittle people, for the injured party could be more honored and dearer to Allah the Exalted than those who ridicule and belittle them, for that is the knowledge only Allah knows.

This verse states this prohibition for men and then women. The next statement is for the believers to not insult/defame the other.

Allah forbids defaming each other as, in Islam, a slanderer and a backbiter is cursed and condemned by Allah in surah Al-Humazah.

"Woe to every Humazah, Lumazah."

[Al-Humazah 104:1]

Hamz is defamation by action (it includes physical abuse, while Lamz is the defamation by words; verbal abuse. Allah the Exalted and Most Honored also called a slanderer who belittles and defames people, transgressing and spreading slander among them, is the Lamz that uses words as its tool. Allah states here to not insult and defame one another so none should defame each other.

Mocking or insulting does not only imply lamz; mocking with the tongue but it also includes hamz; mimicking somebody, making pointed references to him, laughing at his words, or his works, or his appearance, or his dress, or calling the people’s attention to some defect or blemish in him so that others also may laugh at him. All this is included in mocking. What is actually forbidden is that one should make fun of and ridicule another, for under such ridiculing there always lie feelings of one’s own superiority and the other’s abasement and contempt, which are morally unworthy of a gentleman and lead to boasting which is a big sin. Moreover, it hurts the other person, which causes mischief to spread in society. That is why it has been forbidden. Allah does not accept the prayer of a person who has made someone cry because the water shed by him during wudu is less beloved to Allah than the tears shed by the one to whom the pain is caused.

The word lamz as used in the original is very comprehensive and applies to ridiculing, reviling, deriding, jeering, charging somebody or finding fault with him, and making him the target of reproach and blame by open or tacit references. As all such things also spoil mutual relationships and create bad blood in society, they have been forbidden. Instead of saying: Do not taunt one another, it has been said: Do not taunt yourselves, which by itself shows that the one who uses taunting words for others, in fact, taunts his own self.