Transliteration:( Yaaa ayyuhal lazeena aamanoo laa yaskhar qawmum min qawmin 'asaaa anyyakoonoo khairam minhum wa laa nisaaa'um min nisaaa'in 'Asaaa ay yakunna khairam minhunna wa laa talmizooo anfusakum wa laa tanaabazoo bil alqaab; bi'sal ismul fusooqu ba'dal eemaan; wa mal-lam yatub fa-ulaaa'ika humuz zaalimoon )
This verse was revealed concerning the Banu Tameem who had been looking at the poor believers like Hazrat Bilal, Hazrat Hubaib, and Hazrat Ammaar (May Allah be pleased with them) with contempt and making fun of them. Or, it was revealed regarding Hazrat Thabit bin Qais who had said to one poor Companion: "Oh son of such a person," an expression that was regarded to denote contempt in Arab society.
No Muslim nation is contemptuous. Every believer is a person of respect and honour. Says Allah Almighty: "The honour is for Allah, and His Prophet and the believers" (S63 V8).
Honour and greatness are not dependent merely on family lineage, but rather on piety. Says Allah Almighty: "Undoubtedly, the most respected among you in the sight of Allah is he who is more pious" (S49 V 13).
It is totally prohibited to taunt a believer because of his family lineage, and this is the way of polytheists. Today, this sickness has spread widely among Muslims.
Hazrat Safeeyah bint Huyya, who was once called the daughter of a Jew by Hazrat Hafsa. On hearing this, she began to cry and complained to the Holy Messenger. The Prophet of Allah (peace be upon him) pacified her by saying that she is from the progeny of a Prophet, as she was from the progeny of Hazrat Harun (peace be upon him) and a consort of the Seal of the Prophets.
Turning to Hazrat Hafsa, he said: "Oh Hafsa, fear Allah Almighty." The sickness of taunting a person about family lineage is rife among women. They need to take a lesson from this verse. No one knows who is superior or inferior in the sight of Allah Almighty. The claim of the devil, too, was based on this, as he believed he was better than Hazrat Adam (peace be upon him) because he was created from fire, and Hazrat Adam was made from dust.
Because this, in reality, is defaming oneself. The pious sages say that because the angels once criticized Hazrat Adam (peace be upon him), Allah Almighty commanded them to prostrate to him as a form of their repentance (Tafseer Roohul Mu'ani). Thus, if you have defamed a person or insulted him, then you should humbly quest him to forgive you.
Even if that defect is found in him, e.g., do not call him squinty, silly ass, cripple, or blind man, even if he suffers from any of these disabilities.
And are no longer offensive to the addressee are not prohibited, e.g., nicknames by which the person is better known (Khazainul Irfaan).
Therefore, why are you becoming sinners when you are believers? Abstain from all these sinful activities.
Those who regard swearing the Noble Companions as an excellent form of worship, and those whose belief is that hurling one verbal abuse at Hazrat Umar (May Allah be pleased with him) is better than eighty years of sincere worship. Such persons, in the light of this verse, are oppressors and tyrants.
11. O you who believe! Let not a group scoff at another group, it may be that the latter are better than the former. Nor let (some) women scoff at other women, it may be that the latter are better than the former. Nor defame yourselves, nor insult one another by nicknames. Evil is the name of wickedness after faith. And whosoever does not repent, then such are indeed wrongdoers.
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 people.) And in another Version
(And 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. This is why Allah the Exalted said,
(O you who believe! Let not a group scoff at another group, it may be that the latter are better than the former. Nor let (some) women scoff at other women, it may be that the latter are better than the former.) thus, stating this prohibition for men and then women. The statement of Allah the Exalted,
(Nor defame yourselves,) forbids defaming each other. He among men who is a slanderer, and a backbiter, is cursed and condemned as Allah states
(Woe to every Humazah, Lumazah)(104:1) Hamz is defamation by action, while Lamz is by words. Allah the Exalted and Most Honored said,
(Hammaz (defaming), going about with slander.) (68:11) meaning, he belittles and defames people, transgressing and spreading slander among them, which is the Lamz that uses words as its tool. Allah’s statement here,
(Nor defame yourselves,) just as He said in another Ayah,
(Nor kill yourselves) (4:29), meaning, nor kill one another. `Abdullah bin `Abbas, Mujahid, Sa`id bin Jubayr, Qatadah and Muqatil bin Hayyan said that the Ayah,
(Nor defame yourselves,) means, none of you should defame each other,’ while,
(nor insult one another by nicknames.) means, `you should not address people by nick names that people dislike.’ Imam Ahmad recorded that Abu Jabirah bin Ad-Dahhak said, “This Ayah was revealed about us, Banu Salamah;
(nor insult one another by nicknames.) When the Messenger of Allah migrated to Al-Madinah, every man among us had two or three nicknames. When the Prophet called a man by one of these nicknames, people would say, `O Allah’s Messenger! He hates that nickname.’ Then this Ayah,
(nor insult one another by nicknames.) was revealed.” Abu Dawud also collected this Hadith. The statement of Allah the Exalted and Most Honored,
(Evil is the name of wickedness after faith), means, the names and descriptions of wickedness are evil; meaning, `to use the nicknames that were used by the people of Jahiliyyah, after you embraced Islam and understood it,’
(And whosoever does not repent,) means, from this sin,
(then such are indeed wrongdoers.)
(49:11) Believers,[19] let not a group (of men) scoff at another group, it may well be that the latter (at whom they scoff) are better than they;[20] nor let a group of women scoff at another group, it may well be that the latter are better than they.[20] And do not taunt one another,[21] nor revile one another by nicknames.[22] It is an evil thing to gain notoriety for ungodliness after belief.[23] Those who do not repent are indeed the wrong-doers.
19. In the preceding two verses after giving necessary instructions about the Muslim people’s mutual fighting, 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. In this connection, from the commandments that are being given in the following verses and the explanations of these found in the Hadith a detailed law of libel can be compiled. The western law pertaining to libel in this regard is so defective that a person who sues another under this law may well cause some loss to his own honor. The Islamic law, on the contrary recognizes a basic honor for every person and gives nobody the right to attack it, no matter whether the attack is based on reality or not, and whether the person who has been attacked has a reputation of his own or not. Only the fact that a person has debased and humiliated the other person is enough to declare him a criminal unless, of course, it is proved that the humiliation caused had a legal ground for it.
20. Mocking does not only imply mocking with the tongue but it also includes 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. Moreover, it hurts the other person, which causes mischief to spread in society. That is why it has been forbidden.
To make mention of the men and the women separately does not mean that it is lawful for the men to mock the women or the women to mock the men. The actual reason for making a separate mention of the two sexes is that Islam does not at all believe in mixed society. Ridiculing each other generally takes place in mixed gatherings and Islam does not permit that non-mahram males and females should meet in such gatherings and make fun of each other. Therefore, in a Muslim society it is inconceivable that the men would mock a woman, or the women would mock a man in an assembly.
21. 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. Obviously, a person does not use invectives against others unless he himself is filled with evil feelings and is almost in a state of bursting like a volcano. Thus, the one who nourishes such feelings has made his own self a nest of evils before he makes others a target, Then, when he taunts others, it means that he is inviting others to taunt him. It is a different matter that the other person may evade his attacks because of a gentle nature, but he himself has opened the door to mischief so that the other may treat him likewise.
22. This command requires that a person should not be called by a name or a title which may cause him humiliation, e.g. calling somebody a sinner or a hypocrite, or calling someone a lame or blind one, or one-eyed, or giving him a nickname containing a reference to some defect or blemish in him, or in his parents, or in his family, or calling a person a Jew or a Christian even after his conversion to Islam, or giving such a nickname to a person, or a family, or a community, or a group, which may bring condemnation or disgrace on it. Only those nicknames have been made an exception from this command, which though apparently offensive, are not intended to condemn the persons concerned, but they rather serve as a mark of recognition for them. That is why the traditionists have allowed as permissible names like Suleman al-Amash (the weak-eyed Suleman) and Wasil al-Ahdab (the hunchbacked Wasil) among the reporters of the Hadith. If there are several men of the same name and a particular man among them may be recognized only by a particular title or nickname of his, the title or nickname can be used, even though the title by itself may be offensive. For instance, if there are several men called Abdullah, and one of them is blind, he may be called Abdullah the blind, for his recognition. Likewise, those titles also are excluded from this command, which though apparently offensive, are in fact, given out of love and the people who are called by those titles themselves approve them, like Abu Hurairah (father of the kitten) and Abu Turab (father of the dust).
23. That is, it is very shameful for a believer that in spite of being a believer he should earn a name for using abusive language and for immodest behavior. If a disbeliever earns reputation for himself for mocking the people, or taunting them, or for proposing evil and offensive titles for others, it may not be a good reputation from the point of view of humanity, but it at least goes well with his disbelief. But if a person after affirming the faith in Allah and His Messenger and the Hereafter earns reputation on account of these base qualities, it is simply regrettable.
24. What is forbidden is not conjecture as such but excessive conjecture and following every kind of conjecture, and the reason given is that some conjectures are sins. In order to understand this command, we should analyze and see what are the kinds of conjecture and what is the moral position of each.
One kind of conjecture is that which is morally approved and laudable, and desirable and praiseworthy from religious point of view, e.g. a good conjecture in respect of Allah and His Messenger and the believers and those people with whom one comes in common contact daily and concerning whom there may be no rational ground for having an evil conjecture.
The second kind of conjecture is that which one cannot do without in practical life, e.g. in a law court a judge has to consider the evidence placed before him and give his decision on the basis of the most probable conjecture, for he cannot have direct knowledge of the facts of the matter, and the opinion that is based on evidence is mostly based on the most probable conjecture and not on certainty. Likewise, in most cases when one or the other decision has to be taken, and the knowledge of the reality cannot possibly be attained, there is no way out for men but to form an opinion on the basis of a conjecture.
The third kind of conjecture, which is although a suspicion, is permissible in nature, and it cannot be regarded as a sin. For instance, if there are clear signs and pointers in the character of a person (or persons), or in his dealings and conduct, on the basis of which he may not deserve to enjoy one’s good conjecture, and there are rational grounds for having suspicions against him, the Shariah does not demand that one should behave like a simpleton and continue to have a good conjecture about him. The last limit of this lawful conjecture, however, is that one should conduct himself cautiously in order to ward off any possible mischief from him; it is not right to take an action against him only on the basis of a conjecture.
The fourth kind of conjecture which is, in fact, a sin is that one should entertain a suspicion in respect of a person without any ground, or should start
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