The 365 · Tazkiyah · Day 105 · Tongue
Sukhriyyah · Mockery
The disease
السُّخْرِيَّة
As-Sukhriyyah
The story
The Companions trained themselves not to mock. The Prophet ﷺ never mocked anyone; even when correcting disbelievers, his speech was structurally serious. Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī: 'The believer does not mock; the mocker has weighed his brother's worth and found it less than himself, and that weighing is the error.'
Why it's named first
Sukhriyyah is mockery, ridicule, making fun of others. Q 49:11 explicitly forbids it: 'O you who believe! Let no group ridicule another group; perhaps they are better than them. Nor let women ridicule other women; perhaps they are better than them...' The verse is severe: the mocker may be mocking those Allah ranks above him.
In the Qur'an
Q 49:11 (above). Q 83:29-31: 'Indeed, those who committed crimes used to laugh at those who believed. And when they passed by them, they would exchange winks. And when they returned to their people, they would return jesting...' The Quran preserves the disbeliever-pattern of mockery toward believers as a warning against the inverse pattern among believers.
In the Sunnah
Tirmidhī 1977 (Muʿādh ibn Jabal): 'Whoever mocks his brother for a sin, he will not die until he himself does it.' The Prophet's ﷺ structural warning: mocking another for a fault attracts the same fault to yourself.
The cure
1. Train silence in moments when others mock; do not join. 2. When tempted to mock, recall Q 49:11: 'perhaps they are better than them.' 3. Develop genuine respect for the unseen-rank of every believer. 4. Make tawbah for past mockery; if specific persons were named, work to make amends.
What is at stake
The mocker structurally injures: (1) the mocked (humiliation); (2) the mocked person's status before Allah (because the mocker presumes to rank below him those Allah may rank above); (3) the mocker himself (the named hadith warning of attracting the same fault). Modern social media has amplified mockery; the structural injuries remain the same.
A du'a for this day
'Allāhumma aḥsin khuluqī kamā aḥsanta khalqī.' (O Allah, beautify my character as You have beautified my creation.) (Aḥmad 3823, hasan.)
The door of mercy
The classical scholars treat sukhriyyah as a heart-disease that manifests through the tongue: the tongue's mockery comes from the heart's prior weighing. The cure addresses both: tongue-discipline and heart-correction (cultivating respect for others' unseen-rank).
A reflection to carry
Sukhriyyah is mockery, ridicule, making fun of others. Q 49:11: 'Let no group ridicule another group; perhaps they are better than them.' The mocker has weighed wrongly.
Read the longer reflection
The Prophet ﷺ never mocked anyone. Tirmidhī 1977: 'Whoever mocks his brother for a sin, he will not die until he himself does it.' Modern memes, sarcasm-culture, and comedy-at-others'-expense are structurally sukhriyyah-prone. The discipline: do not participate; do not amplify; speak words that uplift rather than diminish. The cure addresses both tongue and heart: the tongue's mockery comes from the heart's prior weighing of others as below.
Sources: Quran, Sahih Bukhari, Tirmidhi. The Qur'an and its translation are verified; the scholarship is retold faithfully in our own words and credited to its sources, never reproduced verbatim.
A verse, a healing, and a Sunnah, every morning.
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