Ethical Values and Social Etiquette in Surah Al-Ḥujurāt:A Qur'anic Framework For Addressing Contemporary Social Challenges

Although the chapter is short (18 verses), it contains one of the most detailed ethical codes for social life in the Qur'anic corpus: Surah al-Ḥujurāt (49). It was revealed in Madinah during the final years of the Prophet's ministry and discusses the way in which one should act to respect legitimate authority, verification of information (tabayyūn), settling of intra-communal conflict (iṣlāḥ), forbidding mockery, suspicion, backbiting, and spying, and ends with the principle of universal human equality based upon piety (taqwā) and not genealogy. This paper offers a thematic-exegetical (tafsīr mawḍūʿī) analysis of the surah's ethical architecture and explores its relevance to urgent social issues today, such as the spread of misinformation and hate speech, racial prejudice and tribal animosity, and communal conflict and interfaith and intercultural discord. The study, informed by classical exegesis and contemporary scholarship, asserts that Surah al-Ḥujurāt provides a coherent and linear moral argument, from epistemological responsibility through interpersonal restraint to social equality, which continues to be directly relevant for today's task of constructing resilient, pluralistic and morally grounded societies.