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Monday, May 2, 2016

Poisons of the Heart: Unnecessary Talking


Abu Huraira related that the Messenger of Allah said, “The servant speaks words, the consequences of which he does not realise, and for which he is sent down into the depths of the Fire further than the distance between the east and the west.” (Al-Bukhari in Kitab ar-Riqaq, and Muslim in Kitab az-Zuhud)

Uqba ibn Amir said: “I said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, what is our best way of surviving?’ He, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, replied: ‘Guard your tongue, make your house suffice for sheltering your privacy, and weep for your wring action.’” (At-Tirmidhi in Kitab az-Zuhud, with a slightly different wording)

It is also been related by Abu Huraira, may Allah be pleased with him, that the Prophet said, “Let whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day either speak good or remain silent; and whoevel believes in Allah and the Last Day be generous to his neighbor; and let whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day be generous to his guest.” (Al-Bukhari, Kitab ar-Riqaq, 11/308)

Abu Huraira reported that Ibn al-Abbas said: “A person will not feel greater fury or anger for any part of his body on the Day of Judgement more than what he will feel for his tongue, unless he only used it for saying or enjoining good.”

Al-Hassan said: “Whoever does not hold his tongue cannot understand his deen.”

The least harmful of a tongue’s faults is talking about whatever does not concern it. The following hadith of the Prophet is enough to indicate the harm of this fault: “One of the merits of a person’s Islam is his abandoning what does not concern him.” (at-Tirmidhi, Kitab az-Zuhud, 6/607)

There are far worse things, like backbiting, gossiping, obscene and misleading talk, two-faced and hypocritical talk, showing off, quarreling, bickering, singing, lying, mockery, derision and falsehood; and there are many more faults which can affect a servant’s tongue, ruining his heart and causing him to lose both his happiness and pleasure in this life, and his success and profit in the next life. Allah is the One to Whom we turn for assistance.





Taken from "The Purification of the Soul",  compiled from the works of Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali, Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya, and Abu Hamid al-Ghazali.

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