As for the faultfinder who goes about spreading malicious gossip:

Hamz (assailing) is stronger and harsher than lamz (faultfinding), whether through sound or movement. From this comes “hamzah,” a sharp sound from the throat resembling retching. Another example is thrusting with the heel, as in the hadith concerning Zamzam:

“It was caused by Gabriel’s thrust with his heel.”

The pattern fa''āl is an intensive form of the active participle. Thus, the hammāz is someone who goes to extremes in finding fault, both in kind and degree. The force is conveyed by the word’s form, fa''āl, while the kind is conveyed by its underlying substance, hamzah. Going about spreading malicious gossip is also a form of faultfinding, but it is done behind people’s backs: it is the faultfinding of someone weak and powerless. Thus, He mentioned both forceful and weak faultfinders, those who find fault in a person’s presence and those who do so in his absence.

As for:

“A withholder of good, a transgressor, sinful,”

wrongdoing is of two kinds: neglecting what is obligatory, which is withholding good, and encroaching upon others, which is what the transgressor does. Pairing the sinful person with the transgressor is like His saying:

“And do not cooperate in sin and transgression.”

As for the harsh brute marked by evil:

He is the overbearing, harsh, coarse person whose extreme tyranny and coarseness have made him notorious for evil, bearing a distinguishing mark like a sheep’s wattle.

It appears—and Allah knows best—that the contemptible habitual swearer and the faultfinder who goes about spreading malicious gossip belong to one category, concerning words and the deeds that follow from them. The withholder of good, the transgressor, the sinful person, and the harsh brute marked by evil belong to another category, concerning deeds and the words that follow from them. The former mainly concerns people’s honour, while the latter mainly concerns the sphere of