AL-HUMAZAH

Makkah Period

This sūrah of nine verses was revealed in Makkah. Its name is taken from the word al-humazah (slanderer) in its first verse. It warns against slandering and defaming, and seeing oneself as being above other people because of one’s wealth (or other worldly things).

  1. Woe to every one who slanders and vilifies,
  2. Who (sees himself above others because he) has amassed wealth and (without expending it in God’s cause and for the needy) counts it (in greedy love for it).
  3. He thinks that his wealth will make him last forever!
  4. By no means! He will most certainly be hurled into the consuming Disas- ter.
  5. What enables you to perceive the consuming Disaster?
  6. It is God’s fire, set ablaze,
  7. Which penetrates deep into hearts (and burns within, as it burns outside).
  8. Surely it will close in upon them
  9. In extended columns.