FRIDAY
LEARNING ZONE
FROM
15th Dhul-Qa’dah 1427 AH /
“Indeed the
faithful are brothers (to each other). Therefore make peace between your
brothers and be wary of Allah, so that you may receive His mercy”.
(49:10)
The
third thing that is destructive to Brotherhood
is
‘Giving Bad Names’.
“Nor
insult one another with nicknames. An evil name is transgression after faith”.
(49:11)
Let us see when was this Ayah revealed? In, it is stated
that:
A Jewish woman by the name of Safiyyah – daughter of Ibn Akhtab –
became a Muslim after the battle of Khaybar and later, became one of the wives
of the Holy Prophet (saww).
One day she came to the Holy Prophet (saww) with tears in her eyes.
The Prophet (saww) asked her the reason for crying and she complained that Aayesha kept taunting her and saying: “She
is the daughter of a Jew”.
The
Holy Prophet (saww) told Safiyyah, “Why
didn’t you tell Aayesha: My father is Haroun (as); and my uncle is Musa (as) and
my husband is Muhammad (saww)”.
It
was here that this verse was revealed, “Nor
insult one another with nicknames. An evil name is transgression after faith”.
(Majma’
al-Bayaan)
Islam prohibits Muslims to call one another with bad and ugly
names. Rather to call anyone with a name that makes him / her unhappy is also
unlawful. For example: If a person is short, don’t call him ‘Shorty’; or If a
person is one-eyed, don’t address him as ‘One-eyed’ or If a person is bald,
don’t call him ‘Baldy’. Islam prohibits this! Instead, either call one another
with proper names OR names of honour and respect.
In
the days of one of our Imams (as), a man came to him whose name was unknown to
our Imam (as). The Imam (as) asked him, “O
Sa’d! How are you?”
Sa’d
means ‘lucky’ or ‘happy’ or ‘fortunate’. See how wonderful and a nice name our
Imam (as) chose to address the person. So we must abstain from giving and
calling bad names to others!