What is the ruling on mocking, ridiculing, or making fun of other people?

Mocking, ridiculing, or belittling people is forbidden in Islam. Allah says: "O you who have believed, let not a people ridicule [another] people; perhaps they may be better than them... and do not insult one another and do not call each other by [offensive] nicknames" (Quran 49:11), and the same verse describes such conduct as "wickedness after faith". The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: "It is enough evil for a man to look down upon his Muslim brother" — in the same hadith in which he said, "Every Muslim is sacred to another Muslim: his blood, his wealth and his honour" (Sahih Muslim 2564). So mocking a person's appearance, speech, poverty, disability, or lineage is a sin against a fellow believer's honour, and calling it "only a joke" does not excuse it. Mocking Allah Himself, His verses, or His Messenger is of an entirely different and far graver order — the Quran calls it disbelief after belief (Quran 9:65-66) — though pronouncing that verdict upon a specific named individual is the responsibility of qualified scholars, not something ordinary Muslims declare against one another.

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