Be Careful With Your Tongue

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum

Dear Friends

I pray that you are well.

Be careful with your tongue. It's in a wet place and it can easily slip. If you are not careful walking on a wet floor, you will slip and fall, and it may be hard to regain your posture but eventually you can stand back up, but if your tongue slipped, it could plunge you into the Hellfire.

A believer has to honor other people.

Abu Hurayrah (radi Allahu anhu) reported that the Messenger of Allah (sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam) said:

Do not envy one another; do not inflate prices by overbidding against one another; do not hate one another; do not harbor malice against one another; and do not enter into commercial transaction when others have entered into that (transaction); but be you, O slaves of Allah, as brothers. A Muslim is the brother of another Muslim; he neither oppresses him nor does he look down upon him, nor does he humiliate him. Piety is here,(and he pointed to his chest three times). It is enough evil for a Muslim to hold his brother Muslim in contempt. All things of a Muslim are inviolable for his brother-in-faith: his blood, his property and his honor.

[Muslim]

A believer acts with purpose. Whoever is careful with consequences remain safe. Act only upon due consideration. Think through and play out in your mind what you want to say. Hasty words can harm relationship.

One must use one's tongue with extreme caution, as wrongful use of speech will be held against one on the Day of Judgement and can land one in Hellfire.

مَّا يَلْفِظُ مِن قَوْلٍ إِلَّا لَدَيْهِ رَقِيبٌ عَتِيدٌ

Not a word does he (or she) utter, but there is a watcher by him ready (to record it).

[Qur'an Qaf 50:18].

وَلَا تَقْفُ مَا لَيْسَ لَكَ بِهِۦ عِلْمٌ ۚ إِنَّ ٱلسَّمْعَ وَٱلْبَصَرَ وَٱلْفُؤَادَ كُلُّ أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ كَانَ عَنْهُ مَسْـُٔولًا

And do not pursue that of which you have no knowledge. Indeed, the hearing, the sight and the heart - about all those [one] will be questioned.

[Qur'an Al-Isra' 17:36]

On the authority of Mu'adh bin Jabal (radiAllahu anhu) who said:

I said: O Messenger of Allah, tell me of an act which will take me into Paradise and will keep me away from the Hell Fire.

He said: You have asked me about a great matter, yet it is easy for him for whom Allaah makes it easy: Worship Allah, without associating any partners with Him; establish the Prayer; pay the Zakah; fast in Ramadhan; and make the Pilgrimage to the House.

Then he said: Shall I not guide you towards the Means of Goodness? Fasting is a shield; charity wipes away sin as water extinguishes fire; and the Praying of a man in the depths of the Night. Then he recited: "[Those] who forsake their beds, to invoke their Lord in fear and hope, and they spend (charity in Allah's Cause) out of what We have bestowed on them. No person knows what is kept hidden for them of joy as a reward for what they used to do." [Surah as-Sajdah, 16-17]

Then he said: Shall I not inform you of the head of the matter, its pillar and its peak?
I said: Yes, O Messenger of Allah.

He said: The head of the matter is Islam, its pillar is the Prayer and its peak is jihaad.

Then he said: Shall I not tell you of the foundation of all of that?

I said: Yes, O Messenger of Allah.

So he took hold of his tongue and said: Restrain this.

I said: O Prophet of Allah, will we be taken to account for what we say with it?

He said: May your mother be bereaved of you, O Mu'adh! Is there anything that throws people into the Hell Fire upon their faces - or : on their noses - except the harvests of their tongues?

[Tirmidhi]

The sins of the tongue are numerous (such as lying, breaking one's promise, speaking about everything one's hears, slander, backbiting, talebearing, false witness, calumny, lying against Allah and His Messenger). This is why the Prophet (sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam) said:

And what is it that throws the people into the Hellfire upon their noses, except what their tongues have harvested.

He (sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam) has said:

Everything that the son of Adam speaks will be a proof against him, except the remembrance (dhikr) of Allah and his ordering the good and forbidding the evil.

The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, once asked his Companions: "Do you know who is the Bankrupt?" The Companions said: a bankrupt man among us is the one who has neither dirham with him nor wealth. The Prophet (sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam) said:

The bankrupt of my Ummah is he who would come on the Day of Judgment with prayers, and fasting and Zakat; but who had offended one person, slandered another, unlawfully consumed the wealth of another person, shed the blood of this person and beat that person. Each one of these people would be given some of the wrongdoer’s good deeds. If his good deeds are exhausted before paying off what he owes, he takes from their sins which are cast on him, then he is cast into the Hell Fire."

[Muslim]

You are in control of your tongue and your limbs. If there is no benefit to your speech, or if it is likely to cause harm, or if you are not sure about the benefit or the harm, remain silent.

On the authority of Abu Hurayrah (radiAllahu anhu) that the Messenger of Allah (sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam) said:

Let him who believes in Allah and the Last Day speak good, or keep silent; and let him who believes in Allah and the Last Day be generous to his neighbor; and let him who believes in Allah and the Last Day be generous to his guest.

[Bukhari and Muslim]

There are great benefits in silence. Silence is dignified. A believer has a sense of composure and dignity. It helps in circumspection and helps to stay focus on what we want to accomplish.

The Prophet (sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam) said:

Whoever guarantee what is between their jaws and what is between their two legs, I guarantee Paradise for them.

[Bukhari and Muslim]

May Allah protect us from blameworthy speech and help us leave what does not concern us. Ameen.

Please don't forget us in your night prayers. Jazakallahu khairan.

And Allah knows best.
Wassalaam

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