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Part of
Humour in the Beginning: Religion, humour and laughter in formative stages of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Judaism
Edited by Roald Dijkstra and Paul van der Velde
[Topics in Humor Research 10] 2022
► pp. 146–154

Humour and its ethics

Reflections from the early Islamic era

| NED University of Engineering & Technology

Today Islam appears to many to be a stiffly austere religion that denigrates humour, but in its earliest phase of development it endorsed humour and set guidelines in accordance with the teachings of the Qur’an and the Sunnah. Islam encourages humour of the positive kind and discourages the humour, which becomes a tool for insulting people. This paper aims to discuss the permissible and forbidden kinds of humour, its need, benefits, and specifications along with its assigned place in medieval Islamic heritage. This paper focuses on the ethics of humour and Muslim responses to it and argues that humour needs to be incorporated in communication for a more tolerant and enlightened society.

Keywords: religious humour, hopeful attitude, Islamic sense of humour, Qur’an and Sunnah, benign humour
Article outline
  • Background
  • The status of humour in sharia
  • Humour in the Qur’an and its religious and social values
  • Humour in prophetic traditions
  • Some limitations
  • Recommendations
  • Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
Published online: 27 October 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/thr.10.12has
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