Page 22 - The Evil Called Mockery

20 THE EVIL CALLED MOCKERY

Rivals in the workplace also mock each other. For example,
two rival secretaries will try to ensure that the entire office hears
about the other's failings and mistakes. Or, they will try to demean
each other in other people's eyes by mocking each other's physical
defects, choice of clothes, manner of walking, or any other personal
characteristic. If one is timid, someone will constantly try to crush
him through verbal needling or belittling glances and words. In
general, people who are quieter and more docile than others consti-
tute an oppressed group at work. Those who are estranged from the
Qur'an's morality constantly irritate such people. However, they
stay away from people in superior positions and those who they
think they cannot dominate. Indeed, they always try to maintain on
good terms with such people.
Mockery, which rules the daily lives of people in such societies,
can be observed in just about every area of communal life. In partic-
ular, the poor are targets for mockery due to their clothes, way of
talking, choice of colors, and way of life. Thus it is no surprise that
mockery is endemic in schools, workplaces, and other communal
environments that bring rich and poor people together. However,
we should remember that the poor can mock the rich just as easily.
But since each group bases its morality on ignorance, neither one
wants to admit the unpleasantness of such behavior. Above all,
there is no limit to it, for their lack of fear and respect of Allah causes
them to ignore the punishment that such behavior will earn them in
the hereafter. They live their lives without ever considering the Day
of Judgment.
Within this character, which is totally alienated from religion,
unbridled extremes become readily apparent. People who are jeal-
ous of a rich person's clothes call him all kinds of unpleasant names
and mock him, for example, by saying that he looks like a clown. It