Resist the temptation to mock others

In Sura Hujarat (49:11), it says: O believers, let no group make fun of another, for they may be better than them.

Reflection: Mocking means to say something which degrades someone and puts them down. It could be a verbal "joke", a rolling of the eyes, an imitation of gait, word or accent or something even more subtle than that. The aim of mocking is to ridicule the other and make others laugh at the person.

This is often done in the guise of humour and the person who is mocking may lead others to believe that they are humourless or boring if they don't 'get the joke'. When called out on what they are doing, those who are mocking may tell others to "chill out" or "don't take it so seriously".

Yet, if the language of mockery removes the property of humour, the statements show up as merely nasty. Humour appears to give a gloss of moral invisibility to statements "made in jest" — but perhaps we should be more hesitant and reflective about what we're participating in and doing. And why.

Why? We generally feel tempted to mock and deride others when we are feeling less than confident ourselves. We may subconsciously feel inadequate or bad about ourselves and may get a temprory boost in feeling better by putting others down. The German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter Hermann Hesse put it well when he said: "If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us."

The verse itself alludes to the fact that the person being mocked may, in fact, be better than the one doing the mocking.

The pseudo good feeling and morale boost that we may experience from mocking others is very short lived and greatly hampers our own spiritual progress for it turns the attention outward to others rather than inward to our issues.

How: We can use this verse to remind ourselves of the seriousness of mocking others, that is NOT "simply a joke" and that our words have real power to hurt someone. We can recite it in a gathering where someone is being ridiculed and make sure we are not a part of it. We can of course choose to defend the person being mocked, deflect attention from him, or at least leave the gathering, whatever is possible for us to do at that moment.

It is also very easy to mock others in the virtual world and we need to be particularly mindful on social media. We can stop, and think about that person before we comment on social media. Is our comment positive, helpful, inspiring or uplifting in anyway? Or is it negative, spiteful and capable of hurting someone? We must not say anything in text or comment that we would not have the courage to say someone to their face.

Verse in action: If we were all living this verse, people would feel emotionally and psychologically safe in our presence and not feel judged or attacked. Our conversations would be free of negative, hurtful and mocking comments towards others.