Quran Tafsir:Sura Al-Humaza
Sura Al-Humaza
This sura is the 104th sura in Holy Quran. It has been revealed in Mecca. It contains 9 ayats and its name is derived from the word which is found in the first ayat, humaza.
Humaza means the kind of person who gossips around and back bites. This sura is like the panorama of the daily life in Mecca in the “ignorance” period, before Islam. It depicts the characteristics of a person who gossips around all day and considers his wealth to be a source of superiority in life. This rotten mentality regards worldly possessions more essential than anything else in this life. Under such psychosis, a character would never ponder about life & death and would live the illusion that he will never encounter demise.
Lumaza also has the same kind of connotation, with a slight difference. There are many different interpretations of the word lumaza:
Ibn-i Abbas says humaza is the person who back-bites, lumaza looks for faults and flaws in everyone. There are rumors that some non-believers in Mecca has exhibited this kind of attitude towards our Prophet Muhammed(saw).
Ibn-i Zayd says humaza is done with hand gesture, lumaza with tongue
Abu-Aliyye thinks humaza is done directly to face, lumaza is carried out behind a person.
Fourth interpretation is that humaza is done openly, lumaza is shown with mimics.
Mujahid and Qatada defines humaza as the kind of person who is like a cannibal, who eats flesh of human beings by gossiping about them. Gossiping is such a awful act, to describe it in a better way, an analogy between eating human flesh and gossiping is established. He also explains Lumaza as the kind of person who finds faults in every human at every possible chance and be open about it. Tabari agrees with Qatada for these explanations.
In any case, consecutive usage of humaza and lumaza is a poetic wonder as well.
Turkish mufassir Ali Küçük points out that this sura comes after Asr sura, where we have been told that apart from a certain fragment, all of humanity is in despair. Now, in Humaza sura, we are witnessing the attributes of such people who are in despair. Another Turkish mufassir Omar Nasuhi Bilmen also points out the correlation between sura Al-Asr and sura Al-Humaza.
Al-hutama is one of the names of Hell. Dictionary meaning can also contain “person who has no mercy”. Al-Mawarde has narrated from Al-Kalbee that Hutama is the sixth strate(layer) of Hell according to Qurtubi’s tafsir.
Baris Tarimcioglu/islamoformation.com
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