The Word Wahabi
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا يَسْخَرْ قَوْمٌ مِّن قَوْمٍ عَسَىٰ أَن يَكُونُوا خَيْرًا مِّنْهُمْ وَلَا نِسَاءٌ مِّن نِّسَاءٍ عَسَىٰ أَن يَكُنَّ خَيْرًا مِّنْهُنَّ ۖ وَلَا تَلْمِزُوا أَنفُسَكُمْ وَلا تَنَابَزُوا بِالْأَلْقَابِ ۖ بِئْسَ الِاسْمُ الْفُسُوقُ بَعْدَ الْإِيمَانِ ۚ وَمَن لَّمْ يَتُبْ فَأُولَـٰئِكَ هُمُ الظَّالِمُون YOU who have attained to faith! No men shall deride [other] men: it may well be that those [whom they deride] are better than themselves; and no women [shall deride other] women: it may well be that those [whom they deride] are better than them­selves. And neither shall you defame one another, nor insult one another by [opprobrious] epithets: evil is all imputation of iniquity after [one has attained to] faith; and they who [become guilty thereof and] do not repent – it is they, they who are evildoers! (49:11)
If the joke doesn’t insult,harm or hurt anyone, what’s the problem in having some fun? Didn’t Muhammad (S) joked some times?
Amin ahsan islahi writes: The things which have been forbidden here have a special inner aspect, and the purpose, in fact, is to uproot it. The verse which is coming up at the end of this section points to this inner aspect. Among the various evils invented by Satan to mislead man is the trial of superiority of one’s race, creed, family and tribe. Those who are inflicted with this evil (and few are the fortunate who are able to safeguard themselves from it) obviously regard others to be inferior to themselves and when they do so, their words and attitude necessarily reflect this. A stage is reached when this air of superiority becomes a tradition in them and, in fact, wherever they can they even regard it to be part of religion. Thus the Brahmans in the Hindus, the Levites in the Israelites and the Quraysh in the Arabs had acquired a holy status for themselves which was difficult for others to challenge. This is what happened to every nation and in spite of its tall claims to human equality, this evil persists even today. So much so, Muslims who were supposed to uproot this evil have themselves succumbed to it and are now divided into countless tribes and clans and each regards itself to be superior to the other. An expression to this air of superiority can be witnessed every now and then in the statements and slogans of every race and tribe. As a natural result of this, hate and spite arise for one another which then assume the shape of enmity and envy and the stage is reached when they end up fighting and severing ties from one another. Here the Qur’ān, in order to protect Muslims from this evil, has reminded them that the Almighty by His grace took them out from the darkness of ignorance and brought them forth into light. They should also remember that their society has been established on the principle of mutual brotherhood (إِنَّمَا الْمُؤْمِنُونَ إِخْوَةٌ) and that they have been made merciful for one another (رُحَمَآءُ بَيْنَهُمْ), so they must not consider some of their brothers to be inferior or ridicule and make fun of them and in this manner distort the whole set up of the society. The words عَسَى أَن يَكُونُوا خَيْرًا مِّنْهُمْ state the real wisdom in this regard: the basis of honour and respect is not race, clan, family, tribe and nation or riches; the real basis is a person’s faith and piety, and it is on the Day of Judgement that it will be decided as to who in the sight of God is more noble and who in spite of his tall claims to lineage and ancestry and vanity in his status has no significance before the Almighty. Consider next the expression: وَلَا تَلْمِزُوا أَنفُسَكُمْ.The word لمز means to blame someone and to say something sarcastic to someone while gesturing towards him with the eye. Thus, for example, in Sūrah Tawbah, the words used for the Hypocrites are: (الَّذِينَ يَلْمِزُونَ الْمُطَّوِّعِينَ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ (79:9 (as for those who taunt the believers, (9:79)) i.e. when poor and indigent Muslims would spend in the way of God from their hard-earned money, the Hypocrites in order to discourage them would ridicule them to demean them. They would typically remark: “Look at these! They are trying to become examples of generosity.” Such statements not only reflect hate but also their arrogance. They are meant to dishearten others or to create envy for them – and both these things spread poison in the society. The word أَنفُسَكُمْ is used in this verse the way it is in: وَلاَ تَقْتُلُواْ أَنفُسَكُمْ (29:4) (do not kill yourselves, (4:29)). It is evident from this usage that a Muslim who censures another Muslim in fact censures his own self because all Muslims on the principle of إِخْوَةٌ إِنَّمَا الْمُؤْمِنُونَ are brothers to one another. In other words, a brother who ridiculed and censured another brother is as if he aimed his arrow at his own chest and thereby wounded it. The words تَنَابَزُوا بِالْأَلْقَابِ mean “to call others with bad names.” Just as calling a person or a nation with good names is to show respect and honour, calling someone with bad names is to demean and disrespect him. Derogatory names come to the tongue very easily and their effect is very far-reaching and permanent. The ill-will created by them remains for generations and a nation in which this tendency increases so much that poets, literary writers, editors and leaders spend all their intelligence in inventing bad names for their adversaries, should only pray for its well-being; its unity is bound to get divided. It needs to be kept in consideration that this tendency was at its peak among the Arabs. A poet and orator would be considered as the greatest in his nation if he was unrivalled in eulogizing the superiority of his nation and in censuring and humiliating others. If their satirical poetry is read, one can see how prominent a status they had in this regard. This proclivity of theirs never allowed them to unite as one nation. They would continue to try to overthrow and vanquish one another. For the first time in their history, Islam introduced unity and the brotherhood of faith in them as a result of which they became worthy of leading and guiding the world. The Qur’ān here has informed them of these evils of the age of jāhiliyyah: the Almighty has blessed them with faith and Islam and hence they should value and honour it and must not be lured away by Satan and not plunge into the abyss from which the Almighty has saved them. Consider the next the part of the verse: بِئْسَ الاِسْمُ الْفُسُوقُ بَعْدَ الْإِيمَانِ. The words بِئْسَ and نِعْمَ are hyperbolic in nature. The exact meaningful translation of this sentence would be: “very evil is the name of fisq after faith.” It is like saying: الشرير كأسمه (even the word naughty is bad what to speak of the badness of being naughty). Even in our language we say: “Sir! Even the name of it stinks.” The addition بَعْدَ الْإِيمَانِ (after faith) is pointing to the fact that if a person had not been introduced to faith and committed something of the nature of fisq (defiance), then this was not something at all odd; however, once the Almighty has made someone aware of the fragrance of faith and as is evident from the wordsوَلَكِنَّ اللهَ حَبَّبَ إِلَيْكُمُ الْإِيمَانَ وَزَيَّنَهُ فِي قُلُوبِكُم ْ (but God has endeared faith to you and ingrained it in your hearts), then even the name of fisq should be abhorrent to him not to speak of fisq being committed by him. It is evident from the above sentence of the verse that whatever things have been prohibited in the previous verses are of the category of fisq and the sensitivity of believers should be so sharp that they hate and detest the very name of fisq much less speak of committing something of the sort. The words: وَمَن لَّمْ يَتُبْ فَأُوْلَئِكَ هُمُ الظَّالِمُونَ very sternly warn people who even after this explanation commit some fisq of the sort specified above. The verse means that people who do not repent on these things should remember that they are the wrong-doers. In other words, the Almighty has delineated the blessings of faith before them and also informed them of the consequences of disbelief and fisq. The responsibility is now on the people themselves. Those who, even after this conclusive communication of the truth, do not desist will definitely face the consequences and this will not be an act of injustice on the part of God; they themselves are the ones responsible for committing this injustice unto themselves.