Al-Humazah (Arabic: الهمزة: "The Backbiter",[1] "The Slanderer",[2] or "The Scorner"[3]) is the 104th chapter (sūrah) of the Qur'an, with 9 āyāt or verses.
It condemns those who slander others, whether by speech or action, and imagine that their own wealth will keep them immune from death, and describes the doom of Hell which awaits them.
Regarding the timing and contextual background of the revelation (asbāb al-nuzūl), it is an earlier "Meccan surah", which means it is believed to have been revealed in Mecca, rather than later in Medina.
The "fire ... which leapeth over the hearts" is sometimes interpreted as starting below and rising: according to Ibn Kathir, Muhammad bin Ka`b said that "it (the Fire) will devour every part of his body until it reaches his heart and comes to the level of his throat, then it will return to his body."
The horror of the atomic bomb needs no explanation, and as far as the subject of nuclear science is concerned, its difficulties and complications are indescribable.
(Allama Muhammad Yousuf Gabriel) In it some of the evils prevalent among the materialistic hoarders of wealth in the pre-Islamic days have been condemned.
Both these things (i.e. the character and his fate in the Hereafter) have been depicted in a way which makes the listener automatically reach the conclusion that such a man fitly deserves to meet such an end.
And since in the world, people of such character do not suffer any punishment, but seem to be thriving instead, the occurrence of the Hereafter becomes absolutely inevitable.
This is furthered by the fact that those focused on this behaviour continuously dwell upon the amount of their ill gotten hoard and take pleasure in stacking it up and so on.
The third verse amplifies the sin of heedless accumulation of wealth by stating that those with such attitudes believe it will protect them and sustain them in this world and also in the hereafter.
In Surah Az-Zilzal, it was said that in the Hereafter man's full record will be placed before him and not an atom's weight of good or evil done by him in the world will have been left unrecorded.
In Surah Al-Adiyatt, attention was drawn to the plunder and loot, bloodshed and vandalism, prevailing in Arabia before Islam; then making the people realize, that the way the powers given by God were being abused, was indeed an expression of sheer ingratitude to Him, they were told that the matter would not end up in the world, but in the second life after death not only their deeds but their intentions and motives too would be examined, and their Lord fully well knows which of them deserves what reward or punishment.
In Surah Al-Qaria after depicting Resurrection the people were warned that in the Hereafter a man's good or evil end will be dependent on whether the scale of his good deeds was heavier, or the scale of his evil deeds was heavier:In Surah At-Takathur the people were taken to task for the materialistic mentality because of which they remained occupied in seeking increase in worldly benefits, pleasures, comforts and position, and in vying with one another for abundance of everything until death overtook them.
Immediately after this comes Surah Al-Humazah in which after presenting a specimen of leadership of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance, the people have been asked the question: "What should such a character deserve if not loss and perdition?"