Website: www.aaiil.uk

Some high moral teachings of the Quran:

Don’t laugh at others, don’t fault-find or name-call others,
Don’t suspect others, or spy on them, or backbite

Friday Khutba by Dr Zahid Aziz, for Lahore Ahmadiyya UK, 16 May 2025

“O you who believe, do not let a people laugh at (another) people, perhaps they may be better than they; nor let women (laugh) at women, perhaps they may be better than they. Neither find fault with one another, nor call one another by (offensive) nick-names. Evil is a bad name after faith; and whoever does not repent, these it is that are the wrongdoers. O you who believe, avoid most of suspicion, for surely suspicion in some cases is sin; and do not spy nor let some of you backbite others. Does one of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? You abhor it! And keep your duty to Allah, surely Allah is returning (to mercy) again and again, Merciful.” — ch. 49, Al-Ḥujurāt, v. 11–12.

یٰۤاَیُّہَا الَّذِیۡنَ اٰمَنُوۡا لَا یَسۡخَرۡ قَوۡمٌ مِّنۡ قَوۡمٍ عَسٰۤی اَنۡ یَّکُوۡنُوۡا خَیۡرًا مِّنۡہُمۡ وَ لَا نِسَآءٌ مِّنۡ نِّسَآءٍ عَسٰۤی اَنۡ یَّکُنَّ خَیۡرًا مِّنۡہُنَّ ۚ وَ لَا تَلۡمِزُوۡۤا اَنۡفُسَکُمۡ وَ لَا تَنَابَزُوۡا بِالۡاَلۡقَابِ ؕ بِئۡسَ الِاسۡمُ الۡفُسُوۡقُ بَعۡدَ الۡاِیۡمَانِ ۚ وَ مَنۡ لَّمۡ یَتُبۡ فَاُولٰٓئِکَ ہُمُ الظّٰلِمُوۡنَ ﴿۱۱﴾ یٰۤاَیُّہَا الَّذِیۡنَ اٰمَنُوا اجۡتَنِبُوۡا کَثِیۡرًا مِّنَ الظَّنِّ ۫ اِنَّ بَعۡضَ الظَّنِّ اِثۡمٌ وَّ لَا تَجَسَّسُوۡا وَ لَا یَغۡتَبۡ بَّعۡضُکُمۡ بَعۡضًا ؕ اَیُحِبُّ اَحَدُکُمۡ اَنۡ یَّاۡکُلَ لَحۡمَ اَخِیۡہِ مَیۡتًا فَکَرِہۡتُمُوۡہُ ؕ وَ اتَّقُوا اللّٰہَ ؕ اِنَّ اللّٰہَ تَوَّابٌ رَّحِیۡمٌ ﴿۱۲﴾

These two verses occur in the chapter of the Quran entitled The Apartments. It was revealed towards the end of the life of the Holy Prophet Muhammad when large numbers of people began to enter Islam, and social interactions in this new community of Muslims increased vastly. The earlier Muslims were people of a much higher calibre. They had accepted Islam purely by pondering over its teachings, and recognising and appreciating their unique value, while also facing and bearing intense opposition and persecution. They had benefitted from close contact with the Holy Prophet and his personal attention. Now people were embracing Islam because they saw others embracing it, and they lacked the knowledge and commitment of the earlier Muslims. In this chapter, Muslims are told about the necessity of good manners as well as good and high morals to be shown in a sizeable community by its members towards one other. In this khutba I refer to the more important of these.

Near the beginning of this chapter occurs the following verse:

“O you who believe, if an unrighteous person brings you news, look carefully into it, in case you harm a people in ignorance, then be sorry for what you did” (v. 6).

Here it says “if an unrighteous person brings you news”. This does not mean that if a person who is not a bad person, not unrighteous, brings us some news we accept it without a thought. A commentator of the Quran writes that what this means is that the person who spreads unsubstantiated news becomes an unrighteous person by this very act. This is a very widespread problem these days, of the rapid spread of baseless news all over the world. Innocent people have been killed and riots have broken out on the basis of unconfirmed news being accepted by people. When this verse was revealed, it was impossible for news to spread quickly or widely anything like they do today. So the Quran here has provided a solution to a problem that was to become very serious in our times, by requiring us to investigate such news before taking any action.

Coming now to the verses that I read at the beginning, the believers are addressed here. It is therefore obligatory on all Muslims to follow these teachings. Also remember here that these teachings are meant to prevent the disintegration of the Muslim community which was in its infancy at the time. This doesn’t mean that the wrongs which Muslims are forbidden here to do towards fellows-Muslims, can be done by Muslims towards people outside the Muslim community. After a Muslim learns from these verses not to laugh at other Muslim racial or ethnic groups, not to call other Muslims bad names, not to backbite other Muslims, etc., that Muslim will also not do those wrong things towards anyone else in the world. This is because he will have given up these habits altogether.

For example, if you treat your own children kindly and lovingly, you will do the same towards other people’s children. If you regard it as legitimate to be bad towards others, and good only towards members of your own community, then your bad behaviour towards others will start influencing your behaviour towards your own community. Just think about this example: Can there be a Muslim who takes bribes only from non-Muslims whom he is dealing with, but when he is dealing with other Muslims he suddenly become honest and stops taking bribes? He will behave in the same way towards both.

The above verse first condemns groups of people laughing at other groups, which means considering them as stupid, lower class, immoral, and beneath you in every way. Then we are told:

“Neither find fault with one another”.

This does not mean that when we see others doing something wrong, we don’t mention it, and do nothing about it. According to a report in Hadith, once the Holy Prophet advised Muslims to do a certain thing (the report doesn’t mention what it was) but some people refrained from doing it. So he delivered a khutba in which he said:

“What is wrong with people that they refrain from something which I do, when I have better knowledge of what Allah wants than they do, and I am more afraid of Allah than they are” (Bukhari, h. 6101).

He did not pick out or name any persons, but mentioned this generally. So “not to find fault with one another” means not to finger point at or specifically target those who are at fault, and subject them to embarrassment and humiliation. I remember Mr Nasir Ahmad Faruqui writing in an article: In my life I have not known even one example where a person became reformed through being reprimanded in front of people.

Then we have: “nor call one another by (offensive) nick-names.” It seems to be a universal practice throughout human history, up to the present-day, to coin offensive names for groups of people based on their race or religion or physical appearance or some other attribute. At the time of the revelation of this verse, some Muslims derided other new Muslims by calling them Jew or Christian, which they had been before accepting Islam. Not only is this condemned here but Maulana Muhammad Ali also writes that to call out to a Jew or Christian by saying “O Jew” or “O Christian” is disallowed here. The next words are: “Evil is a bad name after faith.” This has been given two different meanings: either it is referring to the caller or to those who are being called names by him. The more common meaning is the first one, that the caller is getting a bad name for himself by referring to others by offensive titles while the caller is a believer in Islam. The other meaning is that it is an evil thing for someone to be called by a bad name after they have become believers.

This calling by a bad name also applies to calling other Muslim groups as sinners or unbelievers and kafir because of differences with them on matters of religious interpretation, when those groups are believers in Islam. The Arabic words are: bi’s-al-ism-ul-fusūqu ba‘d al-īmān — it is evil to apply the name of sinner (to someone) after (their) faith.

The second of the two verses that I recited instructs Muslims as follows:

“avoid most of suspicion, for surely suspicion in some cases is sin; and do not spy nor let some of you backbite others.”

These are prohibited as a pastime for our pleasure and as a way to serve our ego. Islam teaches that if we have equal reason to attribute a good motive or a bad motive to someone, from what they have said or done, we should give them the benefit of the doubt and not attribute a bad motive to them. This is the same as the legal principle that someone is to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. Of course, the police for the purpose of crime prevention have to suspect people. We ourselves might suspect from someone’s behaviour that he intends to harm others. The suspicion meant in this verse, which it is asking us to avoid, is when we are merely forming an opinion about someone in our minds and then we spread our impression to others. The same applies to the prohibition in this verse: “do not spy”. Every country in this world, for its existence and security, has to gather information secretly on its potential enemies. What this verse prohibits us to do is to pry into the affairs of others without any justification or need, when it is none of our business, and we are just trying to satisfy our curiosity, and in effect we are trying to take the place of God Who knows everything.

I may add here that even as regards the justified suspicion and spying by government agencies, there are legal frameworks, in countries which respect the rights of the individual, to regulate these activities, and this verse strongly supports legal restrictions of this kind.

The last instruction is:

“nor let some of you backbite others”.

The previous two wrongs, suspicion and spying, may usually be done by an individual on his or her own, but backbiting involves people talking to one another about the faults of a person who is not present. There may be a valid reason for this. For example, when an interview panel is discussing the strengths and weaknesses of a candidate whom they have interviewed, that is not backbiting. It is for the purpose of making an accurate assessment of that person to see if he can do the job properly. What is forbidden is the needless and purposeless discussion of an absent person’s faults which we are not prepared to mention in his presence. It makes us feel superior and makes our own flaws to diminish and appear smaller in our own eyes.

The two verses I read above are addressed to Muslims. The next verse, which is very well-known, addresses all humanity:

“O mankind, surely We have created you from a male and a female, and made you tribes and families that you may know each other. Surely the noblest of you with Allah is the most dutiful of you” (49:13).

This shows that the standard by which Allah assesses and values the various sections of humanity is the extent to which they adhere to high moral values. If Muslims observe the prohibitions mentioned in the two previous verses, only then will they be ranked by Allah as the most honourable of all humans, otherwise not.

In preparing this khutba I came across some sayings of early Muslim imams who are revered in particular by the Shiahs. Imam Jafar Sadiq said:

“If you find a person scrutinising other people’s sins and shortcomings, forgetting to look at his own, then know that he is deceiving himself.”

Imam al-Baqir said:

“The fault that lies within a person’s own self is more than enough for him to deal with, than he should go and pry into other people’s faults, which he himself possesses but to which he is blind.”

So may Allah enable all Muslims to set an example before the whole world by practically implementing these moral values in their lives — Ameen.

Website: www.aaiil.uk