Al-Mutaffifin 83:29 - Linguistic Miracle

Truly, those who committed Jurm, used to, at those who believed, laugh

This verse seems straightforward at a hindsight but if you tie it down with the context of the surah, it conveys remarkable meanings. It shows that the disbelievers described earlier, who rejected the notion of justice being handed out to people for their actions, and ultimately denied the attribute of justice for Allah itself, deep down in their hearts, recognize the truth of it. Their hearts know and bear witness to its truthfulness.

As we move into this section, we need to remind ourselves of what has come before. The disbelievers reject judgment day not because of any legitimate reason they presume to have, but rather simply because their hearts are covered up and rusted by their sins. Jurm means a big sin and it is not used except for a sin or crime that is huge in magnitude.⁸⁰ Hence, jurm refers to their actions that have rusted their hearts, as well as to their mockery of the believers.

The context of this surah is those who wrong other people. People who wrong others do it mostly to gain worldly benefit and to get ahead of others in the race of worldly wealth. This is the case with those who cheat others in scale. This surah called on people to stop competing with each other in the race to attain worldly benefits, especially by wronging others, and rather focus on competing with each other in good deeds to attain everlasting wealth and purity.

Now their mockery of the believers seems to be devoid of any pursuit of worldly benefit at first glance. You do not gain any benefit by mocking others. It only serves as a tool to bring others down. Mockery stems out of spite, hate and jealousy. These are people who try to bring harm to others even if it doesn’t benefit them, but only for the sake of bringing them harm. Like a student who fails his exams, but out of spite and jealousy, mocks those who passed it. The spite and jealousy he holds hidden inside his heart, comes out in the form of mockery. These people mock the believers because they attained something at which they failed. But in addition to all this, it represents another deeper fact.

Remember these are people who try to surpass others in worldly benefits, regardless of the means. This is the mentality of the cheater in scales. This mentality leads us to understand what another meaning this verse represents.

The words “at those who believe” are foregrounded to show that they mocked believers simply because of their faith, nothing else. They did so for two reasons. Firstly, when they saw the believers leave off trying to surpass others in attaining worldly benefits, and instead become obedient to God and only restrict themselves to what Allah permitted them to, and leave off what He forbade on them, they mocked them as those who had foolishly withheld themselves from enjoying their lives. They are leaving off luxury and wealth because of their faith. What utter idiots to leave off these luxuries and to prefer living in even poverty if it must be so, rather than engaging in actions such as even cheating and deceiving others to get out of their poverty. We have a modern version of it as well. Modern society is centered on sexual freedom. What utter idiots to leave off enjoying sexual pleasures until marriage. Who would leave sexual intercourse until marriage, and not enjoy him/herself now and here except losers or those whom nobody would touch etc. This all represents a guilty conscience that recognizes that the believers are on the truth. Again, keep in mind the mentality of these people which centers on racing ahead of others in wealth, pleasure and luxury. Why would they mock them? There is no benefit to mocking is there? How will mocking them increase your luxury and wealth? It is as if deep down, they recognize inside their hearts the truth of judgment day, that people will in fact be rewarded for their good deeds because when they see these believers, deep down, they realize that these people are getting ahead of them in the competition, that they are racing ahead of them in actions that will in fact be rewarded and lead to luxury. They are getting ahead of them in attaining wealth and pleasure. Deep down, they know this, their hearts bear witness to it. So to bring them down, they start mocking them. They try to divert them away from the straight path so they may lose their progress, stop getting ahead of them in the competition and hence be even with them. The Qurʾān says this in other places:

وَدُّوا۟ لَوْ تَكْفُرُونَ كَمَا كَفَرُوا۟ فَتَكُونُونَ سَوَآءًۭ

They dearly desire for you to disbelieve as they have disbelieved, so that you may all be equal. (4:89) Lastly, they do it just for the pleasure of it. It gives them pleasure and that rush of dopamine. Their rusted hearts cannot find pleasure except in evil and they have hence turned the state of their hearts upside down. Hearts originally took joy in good, this is how Allah created us; but they changed their state to take pleasure in wronging people. This ties in well with the root meaning of jurm which means to cut something off.⁸¹ They have cut off their hearts from their original state, to a new evil state. This will be reinforced by the coming verses.

⁸⁰ Ibn ʿĀshūr, al-Taḥrīr wa al-Tanwīr, vol. 30, p. 210
⁸¹ Al-Muʿjam al-Ishtiqāqī al-Muʾaṣṣal li-Alfāẓ al-Qurʾān al-Karīm, vol. 1, p. 302