Al-Hujurat · Madani · ayah 11 of 18

Al-Hujurat 49:11

يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ لَا يَسْخَرْ قَوْمٌ مِّن قَوْمٍ عَسَىٰٓ أَن يَكُونُوا۟ خَيْرًا مِّنْهُمْ وَلَا نِسَآءٌ مِّن نِّسَآءٍ عَسَىٰٓ أَن يَكُنَّ خَيْرًا مِّنْهُنَّ ۖ وَلَا تَلْمِزُوٓا۟ أَنفُسَكُمْ وَلَا تَنَابَزُوا۟ بِٱلْأَلْقَـٰبِ ۖ بِئْسَ ٱلِٱسْمُ ٱلْفُسُوقُ بَعْدَ ٱلْإِيمَـٰنِ ۚ وَمَن لَّمْ يَتُبْ فَأُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلظَّـٰلِمُونَ

“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 [i.e., mention] of disobedience after [one's] faith. And whoever does not repent - then it is those who are the wrongdoers.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The person you laugh at may be better than you before Allah, and every insult you throw comes back as a name you wear yourself.

A reflection

It was only a joke

At an office Christmas party, someone makes a joke about a colleague's weight. It is quick and genuinely funny. Everyone laughs, including the colleague. Later, someone sees him in the car park, sitting in his car for a long time before he drives off.

Many people assume this ayah forbids cruelty, not banter. Surely a joke is harmless if everyone laughs. Surely we cannot be expected to stop teasing each other.

The commentaries locate the problem precisely. One defines the mockery forbidden here as looking down on people and belittling them. He cites Sahih Muslim, where the Prophet ﷺ defines arrogance as rejecting the truth and looking down on people. Mockery is that contempt, dressed as humour.

Another commentator notices that the ayah says qawm, a group, not one man mocking another. The reason, he says, is that a mocker almost never performs alone. There are always people laughing along, and not one of them objects. They become his partners in the wrong. Each person who hears it, enjoys it and laughs turns one mocker into a crowd.

That is the uncomfortable part. The joke at the party was told by one person. It was made into mockery by the room.

The ayah is not against humour itself. One commentator records the Prophet ﷺ calling a Companion Dhū al-Yadayn, the one with long hands. An early scholar was asked about names like the tall one or the lame one. If you mean to describe and not to fault, he said, there is no harm in it. The line is not whether a remark is funny. It is whether it lowers someone.

The test is simple and searching. Who is the joke at the expense of, and who is laughing?

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.