The 365 · Tazkiyah · Day 106 · Tongue
Tanābuz bi-l-Alqāb · Calling Others by Hated Nicknames
The disease
التَّنَابُز بِالْأَلْقَاب
At-Tanābuz bi-l-Alqāb
The story
The classical scholars: the verse was revealed about an incident where some Companions called another by a name from his pre-Islamic past that he disliked. The Quran intervened directly. The structural implication: even pre-Islamic nicknames that the person now dislikes are forbidden to use.
Why it's named first
Tanābuz bi-l-alqāb is calling others by names or nicknames they dislike. Q 49:11 directly forbids it (in the same verse as sukhriyyah): 'And do not insult one another and do not call each other by [offensive] nicknames. How wretched is the name of disobedience after [one's] faith. And whoever does not repent, those are the wrongdoers.' The verse names this specifically and structurally severely.
In the Qur'an
Q 49:11 (above). The verse pairs three tongue-diseases: ridiculing groups (sukhriyyah, Day 105), insulting one another (lamz), and using offensive nicknames (tanābuz). All three are forbidden.
In the Sunnah
The Prophet's ﷺ own practice: when a Companion's name had bad meaning, he would change it to a good meaning. He renamed several Companions: ʿĀṣiyah (Disobedient) became Jamīlah (Beautiful); a man named Aslam (named after a tribal idol) was kept; Ḥarb (War) became Silm (Peace). The Prophet ﷺ modeled the structural inverse of tanābuz: dignify others through their names.
The cure
1. Use people's preferred names. 2. Stop using nicknames they have asked you to stop. 3. Do not invent nicknames meant to wound, even in jest. 4. Make tawbah for past tanābuz; apologize where possible. 5. Train children specifically: nickname-culture is often planted early.
What is at stake
Q 49:11 explicitly: those who do not repent from this are 'the wrongdoers (aẓ-ẓālimūn).' The Quran applies the heaviest accusation-term to those who persist in tanābuz.
A du'a for this day
Recite Q 49:11 weekly. Make duʿāʾ: 'Allāhumma jānibnī sayyiʺ al-akhlāq wa-l-aqwāl.' (O Allah, distance me from evil character and evil words.) (Tirmidhī 3591.)
The door of mercy
The cure is the conscious training of respectful naming. Within months of conscious practice, the tongue's automatic patterns shift from nickname-culture to dignified-naming.
A reflection to carry
Tanābuz bi-l-alqāb is calling others by hated nicknames. Q 49:11 directly forbids: 'Do not insult one another, and do not call each other by [offensive] nicknames... Whoever does not repent, those are the wrongdoers.'
Read the longer reflection
The Prophet ﷺ renamed several Companions when their names had bad meanings: ʿĀṣiyah (Disobedient) became Jamīlah (Beautiful); Ḥarb (War) became Silm (Peace). The Prophetic inverse of tanābuz: dignify others through their names. Cure: use people's preferred names; stop using nicknames they have asked you to stop; do not invent nicknames meant to wound; train children specifically. Modern application: workplace nicknames, schoolyard nicknames, family teasing-names, online handles meant to mock all fall under tanābuz when the named person dislikes them.
Sources: Quran, 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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