And be moderate in your pace and lower your voice; indeed, the most disagreeable of sounds is the voice of donkeys."(Quran31:19)

 وَاقصِد في مَشيِكَ وَاغضُض مِن صَوتِكَ ۚ إِنَّ أَنكَرَ الأَصواتِ لَصَوتُ الحَميرِ

 

 And be moderate in your pace and lower your voice; indeed, the most disagreeable of sounds is the voice of donkeys."(Quran31:19)

 

A believer has many responsibilities apart from fulfilling the principles of Islam. We know most of the responsibilities through the Quran itself and through the seerah of  Prophet Muhammad or through his hadith. In this ayah one of our responsibility towards the whole humanity is mentioned. A believer has to be in the best behavior not only with is Muslim brothers but to every human being without differentiating him based on his religion. 

Here Allah mentions the advice Luqman ( the wise) gives to his son. First part of the ayah says to be moderate in the pace you walk in. The pace of walking is some thing we don’t even think about, here it doesn’t not mean that walking fast is bad.  There is nothing morally wrong with a fast or a slow pace in itself, nor can there be a rule made for it.  Aqsid here means to find the middle ground. Do not be in the extremes, He shouldn’t walk too fast or be too slow, basically refer to the state a person walks in. He should walk in a way that it shouldn’t harm others or he shouldn’t walk haughtily. The arrogance of a person is easily seen by his gait. The gait of a person also shows his state of mind, the distressed person walks very slow bowling his head and an arrogant man walks proudly stomping his feet as if he owns the world, both are wrong. As a believer we have to walk in a morderate pace. What it means here is: "Avoid these states of the mind and walk the gait of a simple, honest and noble person, which neither shows any vanity and haughtiness nor weakness nor ostentatious piety and humility."

 

The second part of the ayah is that lower your voice, which is again very important advice given by Luqman to his son. The impact a gentle tone has on the listener can never be ignored.  Whenever a believer talks he should talk valuable words in the best manner. An advice given while shouting or in a hoarse voice is never considered. He also mentions that the most disagreeable of sounds is the voice of A donkey. 

 

This  sentence clearly shows here that by saying lower your voice it means to not shout as the sounds made by the donkeys that is screaming and shouting when we compared to humans. Of course we can we be loud ( raise our voice) when needed genuinely or we can lower our voice when out of respect or according to the situation. 

 

Speaking harshly so as to over power or bully the other  person is disliked by Allah .

Allah mentions in an another ayah : Speak to him mildly that perhaps he may remember or fear Allah. (Surat Ta Ha 20:44 ) Allah says to our Prophet Muhammad to speak to the oppressor in a mildly (kindly or morderate manner). Then how kindly are we supposed to speak to people? As no human has any right to make a person feel inferior. Do not exaggerate in your speaking and do not raise your voice unnecessarily just to show your superiority. 

 

Mujahid  Ibn Jabr and others said, 

"The most ugly of voices is the voice of the donkey, i.e., when a person raises his voice, the resulting noise is like the voice of a donkey in its loudness. Moreover this is hateful to Allah. Likening a loud voice to that of a donkey implies that it is forbidden and extremely blameworthy.”