1وَيلٌ لِكُلِّ هُمَزَةٍ لُمَزَةٍMir Ahmed AliWoe1 unto every slanderer, defamer!Akhnas bin Quraishe Saqfi used to backbite the Holy Prophet to Walid bin Moghaira who listened to Akhnas with special interest and used to spread all sorts of falsehood against the Holy personality in order to obstruct the outsiders coming to Mecca during the annual pilgrimage period, from coming in contact with the Holy Prophet or listening to the preaching of the truth. Akhnas was also very wealthy and very avaricious to pile up wealth and was very much infatuated of his extraordinary economic position and his social influence. Akhnas was busy slandering the Apostle of God and spreading false notes against the truth preached by him. This Sura was revealed with the immediate application of the reference to Akhnas and his comrades but it applies to every one among the believers, warning them against the evil qualities, mentioned in it. ’Wail’ means ‘Woe be unto’ but is said to be a place in Hell with the worst degree of torments or a deep, woeful pit. ‘Humaza’—one who taunts and ‘Lumaza’, i.e., one who backbites or defames or does slandering. The immediate reference applies to Akhnas and also to Omayya bin Khalaf. Both of these mischief-mongers were busy spreading slanders against the Holy Prophet and his mission as the Apostle of God. The quality of avarice, the lust for amassing wealth, was in the slanderers, Akhnas and Omayya bin Khalaf. Though the immediate application of the reference may be to those particular ones but the condemnation of the quality applies in general to everyone who might be a victim to the evils. ’Counting’ mentioned here indicates the anxiety on the part of the owner to know that his wealth has not been diminished and also to be repeatedly assured of the extent of his acquisition, for he thinks that more the wealth he owns, more safe and happy he would be.