Islam urges us to respect people’s honour and lives, and it calls the Muslims to be brothers and have compassion for one another, and not to transgress against one another. In this hadith, the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) forbids the Muslim to insult and revile his fellow Muslim, and explains that impugning his honour and shaming him is regarded as evildoing, and it is going against the command of Allah and His Messenger (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) by doing what they have forbidden; according to Islamic teachings, it is worse than merely committing a sin. “And fighting him is disbelief (kufr)” – what is meant here is not disbelief in the sense that it puts one beyond the bounds of faith. Rather it is called disbelief (kufr) in order to emphasize the warning and deter the listener from doing that. Or it may be that it is likened to disbelief because this is the action of one who disbelieves. It may be understood as meaning disbelief in a real sense if the doer believes that it is permissible to do that. In the original report narrated by al-Bukhari, the Tabi‘i Abu Wa’il Shaqiq ibn Salamah asked ‘Abdullah ibn Mas‘ud (may Allah be pleased with him) about the Murji’ah – who were a group who said that if a person believed, it did not matter if he sinned, and they claimed that the one who committed major sin was not an evil doer. So Ibn Mas‘ud (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated this hadith, which affirms that sin is indeed harmful and affects the faith of the one who does it. This hadith also indicates that some deeds may be described as disbelief (kufr), which implies that other deeds may be called faith (iman)..