Source:
This article is derived from the book 500 Questions and Answers for Women, based on the Fatwas of the scholars of the Haramain, translated by Hafiz Abdullah Saleem.
❖ Question:
Some female students mock their teachers and call them by offensive nicknames, justifying their behavior by saying, “We are only joking.” What is the ruling on this?
❖ Answer:
A Muslim must safeguard their tongue from uttering anything that causes harm or humiliation to others. In the noble Hadith, it is stated:
لا تؤذوا المسلمين ولا تتبعوا عوراتهم
[Al-Targhīb wa Al-Tarhīb lil-Mundhirī 3/239; Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid 6/246]
“Do not harm Muslims, and do not search for their private matters.”
And Allah ﷻ says:
وَيْلٌ لِّكُلِّ هُمَزَةٍ لُّمَزَةٍ
[Surah Al-Humazah: 1]
“Woe to every backbiter and slanderer.”
هَمَّازٍ مَّشَّاءٍ بِنَمِيمٍ
[Surah Al-Qalam: 11]
“Defamer, going about with malicious gossip.”
وَلَا تَنَابَزُوا بِالْأَلْقَابِ
[Surah Al-Ḥujurāt: 11]
“Do not call one another by offensive nicknames.”
Mocking and harming a Muslim is ḥarām (forbidden) in Islam.
[Shaykh Muhammad bin Ṣāliḥ al-‘Uthaymīn رحمه الله]
