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اَلْهُمَزَۃِ
The Gossipmonger

بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ۔

وَيْلٌ لِّكُلِّ هُمَزَةٍ لُّمَزَةٍ۔ الَّذِيْ جَمَعَ مَالًا وَّ عَدَّدَهُ۔ يَحْسَبُ اَنَّ مَالَهُٓ اَخْلَدَهُ۔ كَلَّا لَيُنْ٘بَذَنَّ فِی الْحُطَمَةِ۔ وَ مَآ اَدْرٰىكَ مَا الْحُطَمَةُ۔ؕ نَارُ اللّٰهِ الْمُوْقَدَةُ۔ الَّتِيْ تَطَّلِعُ عَلَى الْاَفْـِٕدَةِ۔ؕ اِنَّهَا عَلَيْهِمْ مُّؤْصَدَةٌ۔ فِيْ عَمَدٍ مُّمَدَّدَةٍ۔

In the name of God—the most compassionate, the most merciful.

How awful [will it be] for every backbiting slanderer who hoards wealth and keeps on adding to it! He reckons that his money will make him immortal. Nevertheless he will be flung into the Bone-crusher!

What will make you realize what the Bone-crusher is? [It is] God's kindled fire which leaps up to clutch at one's vitals. It will be vaulted over them in outstretched columns.

As its name implies, the chapter deals with slander of the Prophet, which hurt him deeply. The punishment predicted is dire, yet natural, and to be expected.

If a man has a difference with another, he can settle it by argument. But it is not proper for him to denigrate the other person, defame him and make him the target of allegations. While the first course of action is legitimate, the second is not.

Those who resort to calumny, do so because they see that their worldly position is safe and strong. They think that they are not going to lose anything if they level baseless allegations against another. But this is mere foolishness. The fact is that their doing so amounts to jumping into a pit of fire—a pit of fire from which there will be no escape.