Al-Qalam · Makki · ayah 11 of 52

Al-Qalam 68:11

هَمَّازٍ مَّشَّآءٍۭ بِنَمِيمٍ

“[And] scorner, going about with malicious gossip -”

Saheeh International

Essence

Someone who jabs at you behind your back and carries whispers between people will, by the very nature of the habit, eventually do it to you too.

A reflection

A squeeze that leaves no mark

The root behind hammāz pictures pressing and squeezing, the way a hand crushes a walnut in its grip. From that physical image comes the word's figurative use: the mihmāz is a spur, the goad that drives an animal forward with a jab it cannot see coming. Applied to speech, hamz became exactly that: finding fault with someone, usually through gesture, insinuation or comment made behind their back, a jab delivered precisely because it is aimed at a target not currently looking.

What makes this particular form of harm distinctive is its indirection. A direct insult, said to someone's face, at least allows a response, a correction, a chance to defend oneself in the moment. The jab this root names is calibrated differently: a raised eyebrow shared with someone else in the room, a pointed comment that technically names no one, a quiet aside that does its damage precisely because the target cannot even see it land, let alone answer it.

A colleague in a meeting says nothing critical aloud, but catches another colleague's eye at exactly the moment someone else is struggling to make a point, a shared look that does more damage to that person's standing in the room than any spoken objection could have. Nobody present could quote a single sentence of wrongdoing. The jab still landed, cleanly, and left no evidence at all.

The ayah names this as a character trait worth actively avoiding obedience to, not merely a minor social habit. A person who makes a habit of this particular, deniable cruelty has built an entire mode of relating to others around attacks they never have to own.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.