Sukhriyah · Mockery

Sūrah al-Ḥujurāt, Madinan, late in the Prophet's ﷺ life, contains the most comprehensive social-discipline verse Allah ever revealed to the umma. It addresses suspicion, spying, backbiting, slander, mockery, and offensive naming all in two consecutive verses (49:11-12). Today's disease, sukhriyah, has its own line within that revelation, and the architecture of the line should make every Muslim slow down. Allah says: 'O you who believe, let not one people mock another; perhaps they may be better than them; nor let women mock other women; perhaps they may be better than them; and do not insult one another, nor call each other by offensive nicknames; how wretched is the name of disobedience after faith; and whoever does not repent, those are the wrongdoers' (49:11). Read the architecture. He addresses one group first (men/peoples in general), then explicitly addresses women (because mockery has a particular tongue-shape among women that He did not want left implicit), then forbids insults, then forbids nicknames, then closes with how wretched is the name of disobedience after faith, then closes with whoever does not repent is among the wrongdoers. Five forbiddings in one verse, each one closing a different door of mockery. And the most piercing phrase appears twice in the same verse: ʿasā an yakūnū khayran minhum, perhaps they may be better than them. Hear it. You are sitting in a gathering laughing at a man whose accent is foreign, whose clothes are old, whose manners are unrefined, whose appearance is awkward, whose religious practice is what you call 'extra' or 'too little'. The man you are mocking may be, in Allah's ledger, of a higher station than you. The man whose silence you mistook for stupidity may be carrying a tasbīḥ you cannot fathom in his heart. The sister whose hijab you laughed at may have prayed last night's tahajjud while you scrolled. The Companion al-Aswad bin Yazīd was small, dark, with a stutter; the Prophet ﷺ once heard people laughing at his thin legs as he climbed a tree, and said: 'Are you laughing at the thinness of his legs? By the One in whose hand is my soul, those legs are heavier in the scale on the Day of Resurrection than the mountain of Uḥud' (Aḥmad 3991). Receive that sentence. The legs you are laughing at may be heavier than mountains in the only weighing that matters. Now consider the kinds of mockery that pass for normal in our gatherings. The impression of someone's accent that makes the table laugh. The nickname that captures a weakness and circulates until it becomes their identity. The mimicry of how an uncle prays or how an aunt dresses. The eye-roll about a sibling's repeated mistake. The group chat that exists to share screenshots of someone's social faux pas. Each of these is sukhriyah. Each of these the verse calls fusūq, disobedience, after faith. Each, if not repented, places the laugher in the category of ẓālimīn, wrongdoers. The Prophet ﷺ said about specific kinds of mockery that target the believer's appearance, ethnicity, or station: 'Whoever derides his brother for a sin will not die until he commits it himself' (Tirmidhī 2505, ḥasan). The mockery of another's sin draws Allah's punishment in the form of being given the same sin yourself, that you might taste what you laughed at. The cure has three motions. First, when you are about to mock, picture the person standing in front of Allah on the Day, with their full record open, and ask: am I qualified to laugh at this person, knowing what I know of myself? The qualification collapses every time. Second, refuse the mocking nickname. If a circle has been calling someone a nickname they would hate, name them properly in conversation, even if it ends the joke. Use their real name. Make a small disruption; pay the social cost. Third, where you have mocked, make duʿā for the person by name, ask Allah to elevate them, and speak well of them in their absence in proportion to how you spoke ill. Allah said: 'whoever does not repent, those are the wrongdoers'. The path to repent is open today. Identify one nickname or one habit of mockery you have. Drop it. Pray today: Allāhumma aḥfaẓ lisānī min an asakhira bi-aḥadin min ʿibādik. O Allah, guard my tongue from mocking any of Your servants. The one I might mock may carry mountains in legs I would not have noticed.