Blaming and mocking (lamz), rulings

Lamz, in lexicon, is blame in secret, its root being a sign with the eye, head and lip together with a low speech; some say it is blame to the face and attacking people. Hamz is pressing and backbiting, ghamz is a sign with the eye or brow, and ghiba is mentioning a person with what he dislikes even if true. Lamz is wider than hamz and ghamz, and ghiba is wider than it, since lamz is one of its kinds ^{1 2}.

Lamz is forbidden and among the major sins, on the verse of the surah of Repentance (verse 79) about those who blame the charitable among the believers, and on the verse of the surah of the Chambers (verse 11) cited without quoting, that one should not blame himself or revile by nicknames ^{2 3}. Al-Qurtubi says a sensible man does not blame himself, so he should not blame another, since the other is like himself ³.

The verse is said to have come down about Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf (may God be pleased with him), who gave half his property in alms and was called a show-off by some people; it warns against mocking, blaming and nicknaming ². Ibn Hajar al-Haytami counted lamz among the major sins and ranked the three: mockery is the most hurtful, then blame, then nicknames ³.