Mocking Religion

What constitutes mockery of religion استهزاء بالدين ?

Mockery (istihzaa) means: Ridiculing & Belittling

الاستهزاء: السخرية والاستخفاف

When mockery is AIMED AT RELIGION (استهزاء بالدين), it is kufr & irtidaad.
It’s like the mockery of moshrikin, who used to mock God, His Prophets and Books.
Anyone who belittles God, the Prophet, Qur’an or Islam, is a kaafir.

HOWEVER:

When humour is AIMED AT PEOPLE, like Bedouins, ignorant reciters, ignorant judges, ignorant worshippers, – it does not fall under the category of mocking the religion (استهزاء بالدين), because it is mocking the religious ignorance of these people, and not the religion itself.

For example: if you read a joke about a Bedouin who applied a verse from the Qur’an out of context … ask yourself: Is the joke aimed at the QURAN, or the BEDOUIN?

There is a big difference.

Don’t think that just because an Ayah is mentioned – the joke is aimed at the Ayah itself!

The joke could be about the misunderstanding or ignorance of THE PERSON reciting the Ayah, and not the Ayah itself.

Read this Fatwa: https://www.islamweb.net/ar/fatwa/152905/

About 900 years ago, Ibn al-Jawzi wrote a humorous book, called: أخبار الحمقى و المغفلين
Ibn al-Jawzi has specific chapters, like: ذكر المغفلين من القراء
And he has another chapter: المغفلين من رواة الحديث وتصحيفه
That’s about the funny mistakes of Qur’an reciters and people of Hadith.
It’s full of Bedouin jokes about Qiyam al-Layl, Fasting, Hajj, Prayers, Khushu’, Beard etc.

This type of humour is aimed at the ignorance of people and NOT the religion itself.

It is foolish for a person, to think that Ibn al-Jawzi was ridiculing the aspects of religion, while he spent his entire life defending this religion!

There have even appeared some people who claim this book of Ibn al-Jawzi should be burned lol 😂

Such people “don’t know their elbow from their knee” – لا يعرف كوعه من بوعه !!

And BTW, it is not only Ibn al-Jawzi – but also other classical scholars.

So people need to understand these issues correctly, otherwise, they will struggle with a lot of content in classical books.

Allaahu A’alam